The Frozen Heart of Oz
by WTalespinner
Summary: While the Princess Ozma and her entourage are trapped in Jinxland and stalked by a group of witches led by a former student of the Wicked Witch of the West, the interim ruler of Oz...Oscar Diggs...sends Betsy Bobbin and Captain Fyter to stop a siege on a defenseless pearl fishing village by two hostile lands as our film-based adaptations of Baum's famous Oz books continues!
1. I: Lost At Sea

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Before you begin reading this third installment of my film-based adaptations of L. Frank Baum's Oz books, you might want to take a look at my profile first so that you know of the kinds of stories I like writing.**

 **That being said, this story will begin a day or so following the end of the previous story,** ** _The Return of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz_** **. Expect to see an adaptation of elements from** ** _The Scarecrow of Oz_** **and** ** _Rinkitink in Oz_** **, among others.**

 **As always, the characters featured in the books that are used here are the creations of L. Frank Baum, while concepts such as the munchkin guilds and the three farmhands on the Gale Farm come straight from the classic 1939 MGM movie,** ** _The Wizard of Oz_** **. Certain concepts…and a character or two…will be original creations, and other known ones, like Hunk, have been made relatives of other key players here.**

 **Assuming you're still here, let's get things rolling with our prologue, somewhere in California…**

* * *

 **I: Lost At Sea**

 ** _Once upon a time, at a Boarding House somewhere on the California coast…_**

…there lived a young girl named Mayre Griffiths. In her infancy, she took her first steps in a manner similar to a trotting horse, so she was affectionately given the nickname "Trot".

She lived at her Boarding House home alongside her mother and her father, Charles Griffiths, who was first mate to Captain Bill Weedles, a retired seaman with a wooden peg in the place of his left leg. He was the skipper of a vessel called the _Anemone_ before he had Trot's father inherit the schooner as its new Captain. As a consequence, Charles was almost never around the home, only visiting on special occasions and holidays. Out of concern for the family, Bill…who was already a frequent boarder at the Boarding House…spent a great deal of time with Trot as she grew up. Another family relative…a former farmhand from Kansas who was now a student at an agricultural college…came by on occasion to visit the family.

Hunk and his blond girlfriend were among the many individuals gathering at the Boarding House out of concern for the news that Bill Weedles had suddenly disappeared. He had gone out on a fishing trip by himself when a violent storm had rolled in. Bill never returned from that ill-fated trip, but there was no evidence that he had drowned. The boat he used had disappeared as well, and there were no traces of broken wood anywhere when his favorite fishing spots were investigated.

The news of Bill's disappearance hit Trot particularly hard. They loved each other's company, and Bill frequently took Trot with him whenever Trot's mother, Matilda, attempted to find him so that she could habitually ask a favor of the old seaman.

On one of these occasions, Bill and Trot shared a very special journey together about a month before Bill's disappearance. In their mutual desire to learn the truth about the existence of mermaids, they headed out to sea, hoping to find some.

Much to their surprise, mermaids found _them._

They even shared an incredible adventure alongside the benevolent mermaids…after Bill and Trot were temporarily turned _into_ water-breathing merfolk themselves…before being returned to their boat. Of their experiences, they told no one. Who would ever believe them?

( _Although it should be noted, dear reader, that a mysterious stranger happened to share this story with L. Frank Baum, who used it to write a story called "The Sea Fairies"!_ )

Still, so strong was their bond that when Trot found out that Bill had vanished, she immediately went into a silent and oddly sob-free melancholy. She wondered if his disappearance had anything at all to do with the evil sea magician they had helped to defeat during their undersea adventure. Did Zog…who was a horrible cross-breeding of human, animal and fish…have allies wanting revenge for Zog's death at the hands of the mighty King Anko, the ruler of the mermaid kingdom?

It was nothing she could ever share with her parents, nor even her relatives. It was a bad spot for Trot to be in, particularly for the fact that there was no evidence whatsoever of any kind of catastrophe. No bodies. No wreckage. _Nothing._

Just a host of increasingly unlikely theories. Pirates were mentioned. Sharks swallowing him whole. The forming of a whirlpool.

But there were no answers supported by any physical evidence whatsoever.

It was Hunk who had noticed that Trot was not feeling any sense of sorrow for Bill's apparent death. He could not resist the temptation, during this visit, to walk over to Trot…standing in her solitude by the coastline as the sun began to set in the distance…and attempt a chat.

"Trot?" Hunk began. "Are you okay?"

The young girl continued to stare out upon the waters ahead of her, heedless of the seawater coming closer to her feet as the tide swept in and out over the sands beneath her.

Hunk had a hunch. He wondered if Trot's situation might be related, at all, to the reason Dorothy Gale and her Aunt and Uncle had vanished. He similarly expressed concern for their disappearance, particularly for the fact that their farm in Irving, Kansas was, by his estimations, to become the victim of a flood. Hunk wondered if they had simply moved out of state, perhaps even to relatives he remembered Henry Gale mentioning that lived in Australia.

Wherever the Gales had gone, he had hoped they were all happy in whatever lives they had found for themselves.

A part of him still wondered what had happened to them, though, and he stepped upon the space to Trot's left to join her in her seagazing, occasionally glancing at his niece.

After a moment, he broke his silence. "You know…I'm kind of concerned for some friends of mine, too. My two friends and I were hired hands working at their farm. Not too long ago, they…"

"He's still alive."

Hunk blinked at the little girl's sudden interjection, and he turned to her. "You think so too, huh? Well…I'll believe it. After all, I have a hunch that Doro…"

"I'm gonna go find him." Trot spoke with surprising conviction in her next interjection. She then turned to Hunk. "Can you help me get a boat out here?"

Hunk's eyes widened. "You're not gonna go _all by yourself,_ are you?"

Trot frowned. "Unless you wanna come along."

Hunk scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Well…it's…kinda inconvenient, Trot, I mean…I have my classes to think about, and…"

"Fine." Trot huffed. "I'll wait 'till everyone's asleep, and get a boat out here so I can go on my own."

Hunk arched an eyebrow. "But…you're so _young!_ "

"Cap'n Bill taught me how to row!" Trot countered. "I _know_ he's still alive! You wouldn't understand why I know he's still out there!"

"Try us."

Hunk's beautiful girlfriend from Oklahoma, Samantha Bobbin, stepped over next to the curious ex-farmhand, wrapping an arm around him. "No matt'r how crazy it sounds, Trot. Why do y' think Bill's still alive?"

Trot shook her head. "You won't believe me. I know you won't."

"We promise not to laugh, Trot." Hunk solemnly assured. "This will be just between us, if you want."

Although she lowered her head skeptically, Trot ultimately decided to challenge their beliefs through all of one quietly-intoned, but audible, inquiry when she lifted her head curiously towards them.

"Do you believe in mermaids?"

After a moment, Hunk shrugged. "I've heard of them. You think one of them might have dragged Bill down? From what I know of them, they're supposed to be…"

"They're _not!_ " Trot firmly countered. "Cap'n Bill and I were Queen Aquareine's guests! They were nice to us! All those stories about them bein' bad were wrong!"

Samantha nodded. "I'll b'lieve that. My Aunt used t' tell us stories 'bout mermaids."

Hunk nodded as he turned his head to his blond companion. "I've heard stories too. I'm a little too old to remember them, but…"

"Funny thing 'bout my Aunt's stories." Samantha interjected. "She said that name too, Trot. She spoke o' Queen Aquareine."

"If he's down there," Trot turned her head back towards the sea. "I have to find him. I don't care what mom or dad says."

Hunk arched an eyebrow. "If you go off on your own, your parents are going to be _very_ worried about you. Do you really want to upset them like that?"

Trot sighed loudly in her frustration, turning to Hunk irritably. "I _can't_ let this go!"

"Hmmm." Samantha tilted her head. "And y' nev'r thought about talkin' to your parents 'bout th' mermaids?"

" _NO._ " Trot's voice was particularly firm in her reply.

Samantha seemed to think more on this as Hunk spoke. "Maybe you could drop a hint of…" He saw Trot stubbornly look away again as his voice trailed off. "…some…kind?"

"Trot…y' gonna have to accept that this is somethin' y' just can't do alone." Samantha remarked, despite her concern for the young girl's reaction to the hard facts. "You're too little to be able t' row a boat, ev'n if Bill taught you."

After a moment, they saw Trot's head droop down. Her body began to quake. Hunk and Samantha then heard her sniffle as she began quietly sobbing. As much as she tried not to, her sorrow was far too great for her to be able to hold it in. There was no arguing Samantha's logic no matter how badly she wanted to go out on the seas and look for Bill.

The older blonde's head also lowered. She wondered if she could have said the words in a better way. Said it in a way which would not have made Trot upset so quickly. Unfortunately, there was no other real way for her to express the conundrum that was Trot's strongly-worded want to find the retired sea captain.

Hunk, on the other hand, was frowning resolutely. This was, after all, another occasion in which someone he knew had disappeared without a trace. Despite his efforts at the time, he could not find the Gales at all. Perhaps this time, he thought, he could at least make an effort to find Bill. With, or without, the help of his girlfriend.

"You know…" Hunk observed as his eyes scanned the waters ahead of them. "…if a seasoned seaman like Bill went out there to fish, I bet we could find some nice catches out where he might have gone." He then crouched down next to Trot. "There's just one problem. I know all about farming, but I haven't really done much fishing. If I took you out there tomorrow morning, would you be willing to teach me?"

Trot's head slowly turned to Hunk as she stopped sobbing, wiping the many tears that had rolled down her cheeks.

Hunk smiled, and then gave the young girl a sly wink.

"But…but…" Trot's voice still shook. "…mom and I were gonna go shopping tomorrow. We…we need food."

Samantha shrugged, smiling. "I can take her to do that, Trot. I'll just tell your mom that Hunk's gonna watch ov'r you while we're gone. You know…like a babysitter." Samantha then turned her head to her boyfriend to fix a particularly stern look upon him. "And he's goin' to be a _very_ responsible babysitter, too."

Hunk shrugged, smiling. "Of course!" He turned his head back to Trot. "Think you can be ready at sunrise, Captain Trot?"

A slight smile was now on Trot's lips as she nodded, the lump in her throat dissolving. "Do you…know how to row?"

Hunk gently placed a hand on Trot's shoulder, smiling. "Only if you teach me."

Punctuating this statement with another sly wink, he was finally able to get Trot to giggle.

* * *

Trot imagined, in her anticipation for the "fishing trip", that she would be unable to get any sleep. Fortunately, her eyes eventually closed and she lapsed into a deep sleep.

The feel of Matilda shaking her shoulder, six hours later, brought her out of it. "Come on! Up! Up! Get some clothes on! Your Uncle Hunk is here! He's waiting for you!"

Trot nodded wearily, but became a little more alert when her mother mentioned Hunk. Choosing a loose-fitting, sailor-type outfit, she raced out of her room, only to run into Matilda again. "Hooooold IT!" She held out a hand in restraint in emphasis. "Raise your right hand, little lady!"

Trot sighed irritably as she complied. She hated doing this little ritual.

Matilda's hands went to her waist. "Repeat after me. 'I…'"

"I." Trot repeated.

"Do solemnly swear." Matilda remarked.

"Do solemnly swear." Trot repeated.

"That I will behave myself."

Trot sighed in quiet irritation. "That I will behave myself."

"And do whatever Uncle Hunk tells me to do." Matilda wagged a finger to her in emphasis of this.

Trot nodded, still looking tired. "And do whatever Uncle Hu…" She stopped a moment to let out a loud yawn. "…sorry…Uncle Hunk tells me to do."

Matilda smiled now. "And catch lots of fish."

Trot smiled at this as well, not expecting it. "And catch lots of fish." That was obviously not a part of the routine, and the young girl appreciated this.

"AAALLLL A-BOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRD!" They both heard Hunk calling out from where he was, by the shoreline.

Matilda planted a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Have a good time out there. Be careful! Don't fall out of that boat!"

She watched her daughter head right outside, hurrying over to where Hunk and his boat…which was tied to a wooden dock by the boarding house…were waiting. The rubenesque-figured woman lingered her gaze upon the boat until they detached the rope from the dock and floated out onto the waters, Trot visibly instructing her Uncle how to row, before Matilda turned around and made her way to the car where Samantha was waiting for her.

Trot noticed that there were a couple of fishing poles in the boat, and a couple of large metal buckets, so she couldn't help but wonder if there was no ulterior motive to what Hunk had offered, and he did indeed expect Trot to teach him how to fish.

Trot had to challenge this. "Ssssoooo…you've never done a lot of fishing?"

Hunk, however, remained quiet as he scanned the waters around the boat, working the pair of oars at a brisk pace, running them through the waters with strong grips and keeping the boat moving as Trot idly sat in front of him, looking curious and waiting for the answer to her sole inquiry.

"Uncle Hunk?" Trot then asked, breaking the silence that followed.

Hunk's eyes finally met Trot's. "How far out do you think he could have gone?"

Deep down inside, Trot felt entirely relieved that Hunk seemed to care more for the girl's want to find Bill rather than to fish. She now scanned the waters around them as well as she offered a reply. "I don't know."

"Maybe you could tell me where you found those mermaids?" Hunk then asked.

Trot pointed in a direction farther from the wooden dock, which was by now very far behind them. "Down that way."

It was then that Hunk looked to the skies, seeing that the cloud cover high above was now darkening a little, which was odd for the fact that moments before, the skies were fairly clear and the clouds were mostly white. Despite his hesitation over this discovery, Hunk resumed his rowing motion.

Trot also noticed the cloud cover as well, and she felt the winds pick up as they moved. Concerned over what might happen next, Trot fished into a pocket of her outfit and pulled out a beautiful golden ring, slipping it on her left ring finger. She had wanted to use this as proof of her mermaid claims in case Hunk really did want to go fishing, but now Trot hoped that it would somehow be a means to avoid the fate that resulted in Bill's disappearance.

Hunk spotted the ring's presence once Trot had secured it on her finger. "What's that?"

As much as Trot felt inclined to answer with complete honesty and detail, she was still hesitant to spill the beans. "It was a gift. It…brings me good luck."

Hunk's eyes once again went to the skies. A part of him wanted to give up the hunt, but they had not even begun to search. Further, he did not want to give up on Trot just yet. In fact, her headstrong nature was beginning to remind him very much of Dorothy.

"Just a little further!" Trot cried out as the winds began to whip around a little more. Despite Hunk's best efforts, however, the boat was beginning to move by itself, and with a strong current that began to draw the boat into a wide, curving path. By now, the boat was quite far from any lands, and it seemed like they were the only ones out on the ocean as they both felt drops land on their faces.

"Uh oh…" Hunk attempted to manipulate the oars against the current they were stuck in, but the waters kept rushing faster and faster, and around a central point which, to the shock of both Hunk and Trot, seemed to be deepening!

Trot gasped when she realized what was being created. "It's a _whirlpool!_ " She cried out. "We have to get out of it!"

Hunk had to strain with all his might in his efforts to regain control. "I…I'm trying! The current's too strong!"

Indeed, as Hunk continued to try and manipulate their movement, one of the thick-wooded oars suddenly snapped in two! The skies above were now very dark, and flashes of thunder and lightning added to the steady rain which was now drenching the boat's hopeless occupants.

Hunk saw the whirlpool growing larger, its funnel going deeper into what looked like a black abyss. When he looked to Trot, however, something seemed to excite her despite the chaos of the moment.

She looked to Hunk. "I _saw one!_ In the whirlpool!"

High winds now blasted against the both of them. "What? What did you…"

Trot now presented her ring. "This gift! It was from Queen Aquareine! I saw a _mermaid_ in that whirlpool!"

Hunk barely heard her through the howling winds. "Can they get us out of…"

The boat suddenly lurched. In the excitement, they failed to notice that the boat was now running along the sides of the whirlpool, in a twisting, downward arc. With the violent lurch, both occupants were pitched overboard! Hunk heard Trot's high-pitched squeal as she seemed to dissolve into the surface of the rushing waters.

Hunk was also pulled into the watery maelstrom in the next moment.

There was nothing either of them could do but hold their breaths for as long as they could. As beautiful as Trot's golden ring was, it offered no magical benefits. She could only hope that the mermaid she was certain she had seen would help her.

Hunk began to flail about as he felt the rush of the whirlpool's currents. His eyes were closed, too, as his eyes were unfit to see beneath the surface. He began to wonder if this hunt he and his girlfriend had more or less agreed to help Trot undertake would come to a fatal and tragic end. The young girl, however, sounded entirely earnest when she spoke of mermaids. Was there indeed any truth to her words?

It was getting to the point where Hunk could hold his breath no further. Within moments, he would be forced to gulp in water. He would begin to drown. His expression turned fearful as he tried to keep his body aligned with the rushing currents.

Filled with regret that he had failed Trot, he finally opened his mouth, forced to accept his end…

…and in that instant, he found himself breathing air! Gasping with heaving breaths, his body rested against a damp, round surface. His eyes were still closed, but his body was completely exhausted from the strain of trying to hold his breath.

Wearily, Hunk opened his eyes…

…and saw the ocean depths around him gradually moving past.

Yet, he was _not swimming!_

Looking around him in his confusion, he saw that he was now upon the surface of a large, round bubble, which seemed to be moving in the opposite direction. His first instinct was to look for the mermaids Trot had mentioned.

The only things Hunk saw were various sea creatures. None, however, corresponded to the description of a mermaid.

Trot was also nowhere to be seen, either.

Entirely mystified, and at once wondering if this was how Bill had disappeared, Hunk could only wait and see where the bubble was taking him. He saw the undersea ground begin to come up, the bubble obviously traveling towards shallow waters…

…and once the bottom of the bubble touched the ground, the bubble suddenly popped. Once again, Hunk was surrounded by water. With some of his strength recovered from the deep breaths he had taken within the bubble(which confused him as well, as he did not expect a transparent bubble to be able to provide him with breathable air!), he was able to get himself out of the waters and crawl back onto a sandy shore.

After a few deep and labored breaths from his aching chest, Hunk slowly rose to his feet…

…to find himself looking upon the Boarding House. A glance to his right confirmed the presence of the wooden dock.

The morning skies above were mostly clear, too.

Hunk turned around to face the ocean once more with a look of complete despair. Not a sound other than his labored breathing escaped his lips.

Dropping his knees to the wet sand below, he could only feel the current splashing against them as it moved in and out along the sands.

Hunk began to feel as if he were cursed. First, he had lost Dorothy Gale to a tornado. Now, he had lost another friend to a whirlpool.

Somehow, unlike Dorothy, he felt that Trot was not going to be waking up in her bed hours later, safe and sound…but if what Trot said about mermaids was true, then he could only hope that they had saved her life…

…just as they had irrefutably saved his.

And at the same time, proving Trot's claim that mermaids were, indeed, benevolent creatures.

* * *

The four-winged creature was called an Ork.

Was it a fish? A bird? Its four stork-like legs, its parrot-like head…which had a beak that curved down at the front and then up at its edges…and the crest of scarlet plumes at the top of its head would lead one to assume the latter, but its thick, featherless skin and its buzzing, propeller-like tail…formed by a mass of skin, bone, and muscle…made the creature look far more unique.

This particular Ork was something of an explorer, which was unlike his more homebound brethren in the domain called Orkland. He frequently made a habit of traveling beyond the borders of his home, although he never strayed beyond the outer boundaries of the nonestic isles as a whole. Whatever world existed beyond the isles was clearly not his own, and he preferred to be among more familiar locales.

As this Ork, whose name was Flipper, continued to soar through the beautiful skies around him, he was mindful of the cargo he had in his front two feet. It was a cargo that had been entrusted to him during his journey over the nonestic domain called Mo.

The mermaids he encountered, however, wanted the ork to bring the unconscious human girl over the deadly desert that surrounded the fairyland called Oz.

Agreeing to their request, and moreso for the fact that they had once saved Flipper from the attack of a sea creature when he was unexpectedly dropped to the seas below him by a chance shot of lightning a week or so ago, his consent to bring the girl to one of the five domains of the fairy princess called Ozma would more or less fulfill his repayment of the life debt.

It was to his benefit that he liked young humans, as well. Flipper estimated that his burden could not be any older than ten years in age.

Flipper needed to fly at a particularly high elevation to be able to stay out of range of the sandy vapors that would have not only grounded him, but _killed_ him as well. The border terrain, after all, was the Great Sandy Wastes, which was alternately referred to as the Shifting Sands, and far more often by its more well-known epithet.

The Deadly Desert.

Setting an organic foot upon its sand drifts, after all, turns a living person into nothing more than a mound of lifeless sand within the space of a single terrifying moment. Flipper's grip on the girl was particularly firm as his four wings…which were shaped like inverted chopping bowls…kept them both aloft, and high enough for them to be able to disregard the dangers completely.

Once Flipper moved past the desert, it was now a matter of where the girl was to be deposited. On this, the mermaids were not specific, so it fell to the ork to choose. Was she to awaken among the munchkins of Munchkinland? Perhaps the gillikins of the northern Gillikin Country could see to her recovery. Or perhaps the winkies.

It was then that Flipper surmised that his burden would find the most pleasant recovery of all in the care of the most powerful sorceress in the entire land...and if one needed to seek out the company of Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, one needed to go to the land to which she had been ordained a vassal: the Quadling Country.

Flipper figured that seeing the wondrous palace would clue the girl in that this was where she should go, and once the palace was within sight, the ork began his descent.

Flipper smiled once he had settled the girl, who was still unconscious, to the ground. He then lowered his head so that he could gently speak a few final words of comfort unto her. "When you open your eyes again, I hope you will think of whatever hardships you might have been through to be nothing more than a bad dream."

With this, the ork once again began its ascent, his debt to the mermaids fulfilled. He needed to get back to Orkland, after all, for despite his enjoyment of exploration, he similarly enjoyed being among his fellow orks, as well.

Ten minutes passed before Trot's eyes finally reopened.

She first confirmed that the golden ring was still on her finger. Shuddering from the chill she was getting in her wet clothes, she made an effort to stand up.

Her mouth hung open in awe at what her eyesight finally focused on as she scanned the area around her.

It was when her eyes fell upon Glinda's magnificent palace that she gasped in awe. Surrounded by a beautiful silver gate, a large front courtyard preceded a wide, long set of white marble stairs leading up to the red-walled exteriors of the palace itself, with spires stretching high into the skies beneath a lavishly-designed stronghold, the various occupants of which were female, and if they were not wearing lovely red robes, they were outfitted in more soldierly red uniforms, betraying their status as guards. Three sets of large double doors…all three of them open wide…permitted entry into the palace, and each of them were flanked by a pair of female guards.

As Flipper had placed Trot at the edge of a forest that was nearest to the palace, the curious girl began to take a step towards it…

"Wait!" An aged voice whispered aloud behind her. "Don't go there!"

Trot spun around quickly, in the direction of the voice, but saw nothing other than the forest of trees behind her.

The California girl frowned. "Who was that?" She hissed.

The idle sounds of singing birds, and the streaming of a gentle breeze, was her response. She turned to face the palace once again...

"Don't go!"

The red-robed old woman was right in front of her now, holding her open hands up to her in restraint, and Trot gasped, startled by the woman's sudden appearance. Her white-haired, slightly wrinkled face held an expression of genuine concern. The tall, robed woman, who looked to be a few years past the middle-age threshold, looked fearful as she spoke.

"You shouldn't go there!" The woman quietly advised, placing a hand on her right shoulder, lowering to a knee. "A _very powerful witch_ lives there! I'm glad I stopped you before you reached the gate!"

Trot tilted her head curiously. "Why?"

"You would have fallen under her spell, of course!" The robed woman replied. She then gestured to the occupants beyond the gate. "See all those women? All of them so happy and content? That nasty witch captured fifty of them from all over the land of Oz to serve her in a state of mind-controlled bliss!"

Trot looked back over to the castle thoughtfully. She did indeed see the contentment on all of their faces. But one thing puzzled her about the warning she had been given.

The California girl turned back to the woman to make her conundrum known. "What's so bad about being happy?"

"Oh, come now, little one. Have you not been listening?" The woman remarked. "There's nothing bad at all about happiness of your own, but there are terrible magic spells which make you happy against your will! I would rather you be happy on your _own_ terms."

"Well…I can't be very happy now." Trot remarked, in a somewhat sullen manner. "I'm trying to find someone. His name is Bill Weedles. Have you heard that name?"

The old woman thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "I can't say I have, but? I can take you to someone who can certainly help you. Someone a lot safer to be around compared to that wicked witch, Glinda!"

Trot's expression brightened. "That would be swell! Can I see her right now?"

The woman's grin looked a little unsettling, but she could hardly believe that she was able to find someone who bought her most wicked lie. For whatever reason, it seemed this little girl had no reason to not trust this woman, who in truth belonged to a coven of wicked witches.

She gestured for the young girl to walk with her. "Only if you follow along, my sweet little pretty."


	2. II: Cause For Concern

**II: Cause for Concern**

"Do you, Nicholas Chopper, take Nimmie Amee to be your lawfully-wedded wife?" Prime Minister Gruf tenderly asked as he stood before the two tin-plated humanoids standing in front of each other, their tin hands intertwined. "To love, honor, and cherish, from this day forward, for better or for worse, forsaking all others, unto the end of time?"

Nick smiled, his munchkin eyes looking deep into Nimmie's. "I do."

Dorothy Gale smiled wide, with the Princess Ozma to her left and the Scarecrow to her right, as she heard Nick's confirmation. She also could not help but hear the nearby Cowardly Lion's less-than-effective attempts to refrain from breaking out into loud sobs. The flow of tears from his leonine eyes were almost like a waterfall, but at least she knew they were happy tears.

Gruf, who had been the winkie that witnessed the melting of the Wicked Witch of the West years ago, and who gave Dorothy the broomstick she needed prior to her departure, turned to the tall, glistening, and quite beautiful tin woman Nimmie had become in the wake of a savage and unexpected kalidah attack. "Do you, Nimmie Amee, take Nicholas Chopper to be your lawfully-wedded husband? To love, honor, and cherish, from this day forward, for better or for worse, forsaking all others, unto the end of time?"

Nimmie's head nodded once, her eyes never leaving those of the emperor. "I do, Nicholas."

Betsy Bobbin, wearing a lovely yellow dress in reflection of her winkie citizenship, beamed upon hearing Nimmie's confirmation. Standing to her left was Hank, while Oscar Zoroaster Phaedrig Issac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs…the Wizard of Oz…was to her right.

Gruf's next words were not only to the couple in front of him, but to the crowds assembled to bear witness to this wondrous event. Boq and Jinjur, who were due to be married themselves, was in attendance. The coven-sisters Glinda and Locasta. The munchkin guilds. The Highly-Magnified and Thoroughly-Educated Professor Wogglebug. Scraps stood near the munchkins Margolotte and Doctor Pipt, although the stuffed patchwork girl looked ready to burst out in vivid elation. Jack Pumpkinhead, who stood at Ozma's left, also kept an eye on Scraps during the ceremony.

"Then by the power bestowed unto me by our beloved Emperor," Gruf loudly announced. He then threw his arms to the sides in emphasis of his next proclamation. "I now pronounce you husband and wife!"

A loud cheer went up from everyone in attendance, just as the Cowardly Lion finally broke down in loud sobs, burying his furry face unto the shoulder of his majordomo, the Hungry Tiger, who was at his side through the ceremony. " _BUUUH-HUH-HUH-HUUUH!_ I can't hold it in anymore, Tiger! _BUUH-HUH-HUH-HUUH!_ "

"You made an admirable effort, my king." The Hungry Tiger patted the bawling lion's furry back as he felt his shoulder becoming drenched in the lion's flowing tears.

"AWWOOOO-WOO-WOO-WOO-WOO-WOOH!" A single winged baboon raised his simian fists to the sky as he jumped for joy, while the rest of his companions in the Cowardly Lion's Legion of Courage made similar cries of joy as Nick and Nimmie's tin lips came together to seal their eternal union with a kiss.

In the next moment, however, Gruf raised his hands once again, gesturing for silence, as the crowd's cacophany of joy began to die down once more.

Once again, Gruf addressed the crowd. "Will the Princess of Oz, the Mayor of Munchkinland, the Good Witch of the South, and the Good Witch of the North, please step forth and join us here?"

Nimmie's expression went serious now. This was an element of the ceremony she had no prior knowledge of. They had of course rehearsed everything up unto this point, and she had expected the crowd to begin dispersing.

By virtue of the look on Nick's face, however, he did not look surprised at all as Ozma, Boq, Glinda, and Locasta flanked the Emperor of the winkies.

It was Nick who spoke next. "Nimmie…by virtue of this marriage, it stands to reason that you have effectively become royalty. However, I have no intention of forcing you into…"

Nimmie raised a hand, her tin face smirking as she interjected. "Don't you dare, Nicholas. From this day forward, I am no longer Nimmie Amee. Now that we are husband and wife, I am more than content in being referred to as the _Empress_ Nimmie Chopper."

Nick's eyes went wide. He was actually expecting hesitation from Nimmie, who in her humble existence as a munchkin had no royal ambitions whatsoever. At least, not until now. He couldn't help but wonder if Nimmie becoming a tin woman might have factored into this change of heart.

"Are you sure you want to do that, Nimmie?" Nick asked, his face showing genuine concern.

Nimmie just smiled in response, and she then turned to face the princess of Oz as she lowered to a knee.

Gruf then produced a tin-wrought diadem from a velvet-lined tin box, and handed it to Ozma, who rose the headpiece to the skies, hovering it high above Nimmie's head.

"In the name of all who have come before me as rulers of the land of Oz, I hereby proclaim you Empress of the winkies, with your beloved husband and Emperor at your side." Ozma proclaimed. "In his absence, you are hereby empowered to act in his stead as the ordained ruler of the Winkie Country upon receiving this diadem, your symbol of rulership."

Ozma then slowly settled the diadem upon Nimmie's tin head. Her eyes closed once she knew it was upon her. A part of her wondered just how much of her life would need to change, but even if it did, she knew with all of her heart that Nick would be there to help ease her into it.

" _BUUUH-HUUH-HUUH-HUUUH!_ " The lion suddenly bawled, once again resting his muzzle against his majordomo's furry shoulder. "Now the Winkie Country has an Empress! I… _I'm so_ _happy_ _for them! BUUUUUH-HUUH-HUUH-HUUUUUH!_ "

Dorothy shook her head, giggling upon spotting the lion losing his composure. The Hungry Tiger shrugged to the chubby Kansas girl as he once again wrapped his furry arms around his king.

"Long live the Emperor and Empress of the winkies!" Boq cried out.

This provoked yet another loud cheer, and a spirited round of applause as Nick and Nimmie finally turned to the crowd to receive their heartfelt ovation. It was a particularly long and sustained applause, as well.

As with every largely happy occasion that transpired in the land of Oz, a banquet followed. As Dorothy Gale had learned a great deal about foods unique to the land through her experiences alongside the munchkins, she had prepared many of the offerings herself.

She was also among those who were the first to confront the newlyweds alongside Nick's two other good friends. The Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion joined the smiling Kansas girl as they offered their congratulations to Nick. The Emperor's contented expression, however, turned to concern when his eyes fell on Dorothy.

"Dear me…I heard you had been restored!" Nick remarked, gazing at the Kansas girl's larger body. "Was this a…a side effect?"

Dorothy sighed. Initially confused, she then realized what he was referring to. "Oh…no. It seems Mombi wanted to send me a reminder that she never forgot about me. She tricked me into eating a whole day's worth of meals which…well…" She indicated her larger body shape. "…made me a little bigger."

The Lion's face darkened in his displeasure. "Jus' wait 'till me an' my Legion get a hold a' dat mean ol' witch! I'll fight 'er wit one paw tied behind my back!" The king of the beasts then placed a paw on the smiling girl's shoulder. "Jus' say da word, Dorothy! We'll go an' wrassle up dat witch for ya!"

"Actually, your highness, she _wanted_ to stay this way." The Scarecrow explained. "She wanted to be able to show that what Mombi did didn't upset her. It's a wise move, if I do say so myself."

"I agree." The deep, rumbling voice of the Hungry Tiger, standing next to the Lion, added. "There's not much that Mombi can do anyway with her potions. Particularly with Ozma keeping an eye on her using the magic picture."

"Besides…you have to admit that as a munchkin, I was…kinda _round_ in the gut." Dorothy added, somewhat amusedly.

"And yet, you were able to do so much!" The Scarecrow reminded.

"You'll always be the same ol' Dorothy Gale to me, old friend." Nick assured. "Short, tall, thin, fat, or otherwise."

Young Betsy Bobbin interjected at this point, having made her way over as well. "You shoulda seen what that Hip-po-gy-raf did t' _me,_ Dor'thy. I was so fat, I couldn't ev'n _move!_ "

Dorothy looked over her friend from Oklahoma, who was a circus acrobat alongside the Wizard of Oz before being relocated, along with Oscar, to the land the Wizard once ruled over by way of another natural disaster. Betsy's dress looked entirely different, having traded her white dress for one which was entirely yellow, with black highlights. She had removed her white bonnet as well, showing off her full head of light brown curls. A yellow flower…which Dorothy recognized as being unique to the Winkie Country…decorated her hair as well.

"So how does it feel to be one of the winkies, Betsy?" Dorothy asked, smiling

"Well, it's kinda strange. I always feel like I should be _workin'_." Betsy replied.

"Maybe you can work on getting a circus together?" Nimmie mused, adding a knowing wink.

Betsy giggled at this. "As long as I'm not a clown."

"Oh, I think Nimmie and I would rather see the all-powerful Queen of Diamonds!" Nick remarked, smiling. "She's always wanted to meet her!"

Betsy shrugged. "I'll see what I can do…" she then curtseyed low. "…my Empress."

"My goodness! Everyone crowding around the new couple! Do give them a little more room!" Glinda amusedly remarked as she stepped among them. "Actually, I'm glad you're all here. You should avail yourself to the banquet's offerings. When you're all done and the banquet is finished, I need to call an important meeting to discuss a matter which was brought to the attention of the princess Ozma sometime ago. An occurrence which, if I am not mistaken, was observed by young Betsy here."

"Y' mean those witches, right?" Betsy asked.

Glinda nodded. "Ozma has received a messenger from Jinxland this morning. She would like to get opinions from us. Apparently, the situation has dramatically changed. For the better, according to the message."

"All of us meeting in one place?" The Tiger noted warily. "If there _is_ wickedness to be discussed, and witches are involved…"

"Rest assured, Tiger, our meeting area will be quite well-protected from unforeseen magical assaults." Glinda assured. "In fact, Locasta and I shall be performing the ritual of protection as you all eat, so I must step away. Do keep an eye on my apprentice over there." She then indicated Oscar Diggs. "Make sure he doesn't show off too much with his new magic abilities."

"Will do, Glinda." The straw-stuffed royal advisor assured. "We'll see you at the meeting site then."

As the Good Witch of the South walked by Dorothy, she stopped for a moment, pulling her magic wand. "Oh, and Dorothy…"

The red-haired, red-robed witch then lightly touched the glowing end of the wand to the tip of Dorothy's nose, and the increased weight Mombi had inflicted upon the Kansas girl suddenly evaporated, effectively restoring the figure she had when she first came to Oz. Dorothy gasped in her surprise, feeling somewhat lighter now.

"…do watch what you eat, my dear." Glinda winked, smiling, and then stepped away.

"Hmph. So much for wanting to show how strong your spirit is, Dorothy." The Tiger griped.

"Ehh, dat's jus' da way Glinda is, Tiger." The leonine monarch explained. "She doesn't like transformation magic. I kinda expected dat she'd fix Dorothy up in a wink."

"Might be just as well." The Scarecrow noted. "If we're in for another wild and crazy adventure in Jinxland, we should all be in our best shape."

"And get plenty of energy, too." Dorothy added. "Besides…I want to know if my cooking is as good as it was when I was a munchkin."

With this, the group dispersed. Those who had the appetite or the hunger for it availed themselves to the many offerings of food, while those who did not correspond to the logical vernacular of "meat people" observed the festivities and engaged in various discussions.

And Dorothy was pleased to discover, afterwards, that she had not lost her impeccable culinary touch.

* * *

The last thing they all expected…particularly as they were in the midst of sharing the revelries, and the foods, of the winkies on the occasion of not only a marriage, but a coronation…was a surprise drill.

Alas, such was the way of Bo, the fat and furry discipline officer of the Legion of Courage, who like Dorothy came from another land by way of an unexpected accident. The black and white-furred panda had come to Oz from her birthplace in China, a place called Guang-Dong, a long time ago, during the reign of the Wizard of Oz, and about a year before Dorothy's first arrival. The follower of a venerable _sifu_ , who had taught Bo to walk as humans do, it was not until an opportunity presented itself through the newly-formed Legion of Courage that Bo revealed her potential usefulness to the nascent group of roaming protectors the Cowardly Lion hoped his idea would create.

The others in the current roster of the Legion had varied responses to such unforeseen drills. Some found them terribly inconvenient, if not outright annoying, while others saw them as advantageous, given the need for legion members to be ready at all times as per the want of both their leonine commander and his black-striped, orange-furred majordomo.

Regardless of their reactions, they all responded to Bo's first order of business in the performance of a drill, which the large female panda bellowed forth once they were far from the tin palace, where the banquet was continuing. "ROLL CALL! Line up! Let's go, puppies!"

They arranged themselves accordingly, and all of them standing on two legs…save for the group's unicorn strategist, Ali…to await the daily pre-drill accounting from Bo, who as always had her long wooden staff in one paw.

After Bo counted how many stood before her, she barked out yet another order. "Right! _Sound off!_ "

The large, muscular bear was the first to speak. "Brawn. Uh…here."

Bo stepped right up to the bruin. "' _Uh…here'_? You don't sound very sure, Private Brawn!" She then gestured in another direction. "Maybe you're over _there!_ "

"Nope." Brawn replied. "I'm here, occapeein' dis space, at dis time."

Bo blinked. "Occa…peeing…" She shook her head, opting to temporarily dispense with the correction, and moved to the pensive-looking rhino next to Brawn.

"Biff. Present." The rhino then uttered as he emotionlessly gazed forward, heedless of where Bo was standing.

As Bo's expression showed, she was no stranger to the rhino's inability to look her in the eye when it was his turn in the roll call. "Just for once, I'd like to see your eyes connect with _mine,_ Private Biff!"

"With respect, discipline officer…" Biff calmly replied. "…we do not connect. We _attune._ "

Frowning incredulously for a quiet moment, Bo raised a digit of her right paw in preparation for a retort…but as always, she just _couldn't_. She lowered the paw, shaking her head, and instead moved on to her next charge.

The gorilla next to him stood at full attention, his simian chin angled up proudly. "Brocius. Present and ready." He firmly reported.

"Mmm. As always." Bo smirked. "If I didn't know better, Private Brocius, I'd say you wanted my job."

"Never, discipline officer." Brocius responded, keeping at attention.

Bo stepped over to confront the panther woman next to Brocius.

"Shade. Here now, gone the next." The black-furred feline spoke the words with a touch of pride in her personal abilities.

And, as always, the orange-furred, black-striped tigress next to her couldn't pass up the chance to sabotage it. "While the rest of us do the _real_ fighting."

Shade's expression darkened as the tigress smirked.

Bo, however, did not look amused as she turned her angry gaze to the tigress. " _WAIT YOUR TURN!_ " She growled. The panda's gaze went back to Shade. "You can't _always_ rely on stealth, you know!"

"I'm working on it, Bo." Shade replied, her voice whispery soft.

The frowning panda then stepped in front of the tigress and waited.

The tigress still had her confident smirk. "Oh, you ready for me now? Rouse. Been better, been stronger, been a winner. Always have been, always will be."

"With an attitude like that, you're just _asking_ for a loss." Bo warned.

"Pfft. Spare me that 'balance' baloney." Rouse saw the look Bo had in her eye. As tough as she was, she knew her place as a member of the Legion, and Bo was clearly Rouse's superior in rank. The tigress snapped back to attention. "Uh…discipline officer."

Bo moved to the unicorn now.

"Ali. I am present, discipline officer." The unicorn reported, an attentive expression on his spiral-horned, equine muzzle.

"And where Ali be, _Koup_ be!" came another familiar voice, this one on Ali's back. Spreading his wings out and to the sides, the winged baboon called Koup soared up a short distance to the sky to let out another of his customary whoops. "AWWOOO-WOO-WOO-WOO-WO…"

" _SHADDAP!_ " Bo roared. The panda sighed irritably. " _Always_ such a chore for me to keep you all _disciplined!_ "

"We be loyal, discipline officer!" Koup assured as he lowered himself back onto Ali's back. "We also all present! What be de drill today?"

Bo positioned herself before the legion lineup before answering Koup's inquiry. "These orders come straight from the top! Ali is on point, markin' our trail! We're hot-pawin' our way to the Quadling Country, and from there, we're on Jinxland recon!"

"Jinxland?" Brocius frowned in his curiosity. "This have anything to do with the coven activity we missed?"

"We have an eyewitness, their king has assurances that it's nothing." Bo explained. "Which is why we're on recon only." The panda then frowned to Rouse. "Which means _no unnecessary trouble._ "

"Mmm. Stealth. I'm gonna like that job." Shade angled a glance to the tigress. "Unlike _some_ rabble- _Rouse_ -ers."

"Got a problem with my winning ways, Miss no-shame-in-hiding?" Rouse turned threateningly to the panther, who was already assuming a battle stance…

…but Brocius quickly moved out of line to get between them. "ENOUGH! We have our marching orders. Maintain discipline!"

Although the two felines still looked to each other threateningly, they disengaged.

"Alright, puppies…I want rear paws diggin' in the ground even if you've got wings!" Bo whipped her staff towards a direction south of their position, and at no place in particular. "MOVE OUT!"

As Ali and the others streamed past Bo, Koup loped over to her. "No flyin'?" he whined.

Bo frowned to the baboon, one of the few who remained in Oz following the banishment of the simian servants of the late Wicked Witch of the East from long ago. "And what if someone were to clip your wings? I can't expect you to just rely on a flight plan! I need you to be _versatile!_ "

"Can I be versa-whateva' in de _sky?_ " Koup innocently pleaded.

Bo flashed her teeth angrily. "GET MOVIN'! Follow the tracks!" She then reared her pole back to take a swing…

…but Koup began moving, and Bo followed along. The panda kept pace with Koup as they moved, speaking as they continued following the tracks the others made. "Just because you can't fly doesn't mean you can't find other means of moving! You're a baboon! Make use of the trees! Jump! Swing! Rest those wing muscles and awaken those _other_ muscles and instincts!"

Koup did just that, and he had to admit that while he had an obvious preference for flying, he could establish just as brisk a pace at the urging of his stern panda taskmaster, who kept glancing at the swinging and jumping simian even as she was hurrying along the trails left by the other legion members.

The minds of everyone in the group were focused, whatever quirks they had set aside in favor of constant and concentrated movement. Taking open paths and using alternatives where they ended, they also made use of their individual gifts during their progress.

When they passed the city of Herku, they made their way around a small group of enslaved giants. One of them lost balance while carrying a large boulder, and the large rock dropped right down in a manner which would crush Shade…

…but Brocius was there, grabbing the rock and tossing it to the side with a hook-like movement of his right arm. The giant was able to go over and retrieve the boulder as the rest of the group passed them.

A fallen tree…again, the result of a Herku giant's carelessness…blocked progress which would take the group across the border and into the Quadling Country. The group cleared a path for Biff, who instinctively picked up speed and charged forward with his horns exposed. The fallen tree yielded to the impact, and their progress continued.

Moving into the Quadling territories, one bullying Hammerhead…an armless, flat-headed humanoid…who was part of a group of five made the mistake of firing his head towards the group, hoping to impede their advance. Unfortunately for the armless miscreant, it was Brawn who intercepted the head, and he next began swinging the hapless hammerhead around in a manner similar to an Olympic weight-throw, spinning him around and around with increasing speed until the bear let the armless, long-necked humanoid go, sending him sailing across a very long distance.

Needless to say, the other four hammerheads got the message, and retreated out of sight.

When the group had caught up to Ali, they saw he had stopped. His eyes lingered on that of an oddly-shaped stone pillar, one of a few that had been placed within the plains that preceded the Jinxland territory.

When Ali turned to face the others, he waited for Bo to reach him. She and Koup made it to the unicorn at around the same time.

Rouse was the first to ask the obvious question. "What's with all these columns?"

Brocius was already examining another such stone shape. Once he saw one particular side of the column, his eyes widened. "I…don't…think these are columns at all."

"Spread out." Bo warily commanded. "Check the rest of them." She then stepped over to Brocius, and confirmed with her own eyes what the gorilla had already figured out.

They were either very well-sculpted renderings of terrified humans…

…or they were humans who had been turned to stone.

A majority of them obviously suspected the latter case to be true when they got back together to assess the situation.

"If this was the work of witches," Biff quietly remarked. "we should be extremely careful."

Bo turned to the winged baboon. "Time to work on your recon skills, Koup. I need a single, careful arc over Jinxland. Then come back to us with your findings. Go now."

Koup nodded, and made his way to a position where he could commence his single flight arc, which would pitch him in a single glide over the area, sailing over the gorges that surrounded the territory.

Brocius was the next to speak as Koup loped away. "What do we do in the meantime, discipline officer?"

Bo turned to Ali. "You're our strategist. Thoughts?"

"I agree that if witches did this, we need to proceed carefully." The unicorn replied. "We should dig in and wait for Koup's findings. If it's what I think it's going to be, we're gonna need to be _very_ careful with our next move, or we'll end up no different from these poor people."

Shade looked around lamentedly at the many columns, which had various expressions of horror and shock. "There's so _many_ of them…!"

"Men, women…even children…" Rouse assessed. "… _why?_ "

"Probably a response to a rebellion." Biff guessed. "Makes you wonder if there are any unaffected humans around here at all."

Bo and Rouse spotted Koup beginning his arc a distance away, and they hoped he would not suddenly drop down as he sailed over Jinxland, his simian body rendered a stone statue…

…but Koup managed to make it over to the other side, much to the relief of the others.

Shade's senses, however, picked up a scent, and she raised a paw as per her legion training. Bo was the first to catch it, and she knocked her staff against the ground twice, gesturing to Shade, who was already moving as quietly as she could.

The others readied themselves, choosing places to blend in, if not outright hide, as best they could. Shade continued moving, picking whatever shadows she could find, and then moving as close to the ground as possible on all fours.

The human scent carried evidence of a person who was very, very old. As Shade neared this wanderer, she noted that this person sounded very tired by virtue of his labored breathing.

The human began muttering unintelligibly as Shade got behind a tree, the other side of which this old human was now resting against.

Rouse watched as Shade began moving along the tree towards the grey-haired man she could barely make out from her position…

…and Shade's paw was able to press against the old man's mouth before he could react. The panther quickly hissed a 'shhhhhh' as she moved in front of him.

The wrinkled old man looked terrified as the panther stood before him, back on her hind legs, as the rest of the group silently made their way to Shade's position.

"Speak quietly. We're with the legion." The panther silently assured. "My name is Shade. When I take my paw away from your mouth, don't yell. We will not hurt you."

The short-haired old man nodded, looking a little more calm as the paw came away from his wrinkled mouth. "I…I know…who you are. But…it won't make a difference…unless…you have magic. Even then…they have a whole _coven_." His despairing voice shook as he spoke. "We need Glinda."

"That can be arranged." Bo assured. "Can you tell us who you are?"

The old man, who was dressed in a long brown smock and had sandals on his feet, nodded. "My name is…is Pon. I was the Gardener's boy."

Brawn frowned. "Boy? Uh…you look more like a man."

Pon lowered his head. "L…let me re…re-phrase." His quaking head came back up. "I…I _used_ to be the Gardener's boy."

"So you were let go?" Rouse guessed. "You lost your job?"

"Wait a minute." Brocius caught on. "When you say you used to be the Gardener's _boy_ …"

Pon already nodded, emphatically, in recognition of this. His next words sent an ominous chill through the furry bodies of the assembled group.

"As in…I used to be a young boy."

* * *

Glinda and Locasta assessed who was present at the meeting area, as per their invitations. As the princess Ozma suggested the meeting in the first place, she was the first person to arrive, and confirm that the ritual was in place. To the naked eye, the room they were in was empty, and the transparent bubble within which they were all in was ready to perpetually cancel out any attempts to scry upon, or attempt a powerful enchantment upon, the assembled group. Only those who had been named could enter the unseen bubble, and see who was within it.

Dorothy Gale and Betsy Bobbin disappeared inside it. The Scarecrow went in. Emperor Nick Chopper and his new wife, the tin-plated Empress Nimmie. The Cowardly Lion and his majordomo, the Hungry Tiger. Oscar Diggs joined the group as well. So that the maidstaff at the royal palace could be made aware of whatever situation was to be discussed, Ozma had their head maid, Jellia Jamb, attend as well. She conveniently provided refreshments and snacks upon her arrival as well, adding to the food offerings Dorothy brought with Betsy's help. Professor Wogglebug had been invited, but he chose to remain in Munchkinland to continue the development of the College of Art and Athletic Perfection, which was arranging its full educational curriculums in the wake of the completion of the building itself.

There was little in the way of small talk before Glinda began addressing the assemblage. "Thank you all for coming, my friends. As promised, this chamber beneath the royal palace has been magically safeguarded with the aid of my coven-sister here." She indicated Locasta, who nodded in acknowledgement. "Without any further ado, Her Royal Highness, the princess Ozma." After a gesture to the fairy princess, who rose from her seat at the large, round table everyone had taken places at, Glinda moved to her own place next to Locasta as the ruler of Oz began speaking.

Ozma then produced a single marble, which she placed upon the table. With a wave of her dimly-glowing wand, the marble rolled to the center of the table and an illusionary image sprang forth from it. She was young, and quite pretty, with a head of soft, curly hair and a flowery pink dress. She flashed a pleasant smile as she began to speak.

"Greetings, your royal highness." The image began, making slight movements and speaking with full clarity, as if she were truly there. "I understand that as the ruler of the land of Oz, of which Jinxland is a part, you might have worried for a little occurrence one of your subjects witnessed and reported, which has been explained to me by our King. Let me first assure you that there is no cause for concern. The King hired the services of those witches to break a spell I was placed under. As I remember it, I believe the witch who placed the offending spell upon me identified herself as…Mombi? Apparently, my enchantment was part of a plot to prevent a war between the island of Pingaree and the lands of Regos and Coregos. Thankfully, the witches the King hired were able to get a hold of me and perform a ritual to counter my enchantment. As I was naturally under a spell, I was initially resistant, and the ritual performed by the witches required the temporary freezing of my heart. The effect has since thawed, and all is well. I am back to my natural self, and I would like very much to meet the people of the Emerald City who were so concerned about me. I am therefore extending an invitation to you, princess Ozma, and a delegation of your choosing so that I might learn more of the societies beyond the gorges that separate our Jinxland from your Oz. We have been isolated for far too long, and we would like to see our voluntary seclusion come to an end in as mutual a fashion as you see fit. My messenger awaits your response. I hope to meet you and whatever entourage you bring with you soon should you decide to accept our proposal."

The illusion then faded following Gloria's humble and respectful curtsey.

Ozma resumed speaking once the image had disappeared. "I sent the messenger back with my intention to accept her proposal. Part of the reason I have called you all here is not only to get opinions, but to find out who might wish to be among the delegates."

As Ozma spoke, Glinda had turned her head briefly to Locasta and gave her coven-sister a confirming nod, as if engaging in a mental discussion. She then turned her head to the fairy princess. "Locasta and I shall join you, your highness."

"I will go as well." Nick Chopper confirmed. "Gloria looks like a lovely young princess."

"As much as a diplomatic function sounds like a promising experience, I'll leave Nicholas to it." Nimmie remarked. "I need to show that I can be trusted to watch over the winkies in the emperor's absence, anyway."

"Are you sure, Nimmie?" Nick's face was one of concern as he looked to his tin-plated wife. "If you had wanted to go…"

The newly-ordained empress shook her head as she interjected. "You go on, Nicholas. Represent your country well out there."

Nick smiled, bowing courteously to his wife. "As you wish, my Empress."

Ozma looked to Oscar Diggs now, who since returning to Oz had become Glinda's apprentice in the spellworking arts. "Mr. Diggs, I have a favor to ask of you. A very important one. I should like my responsibilities as the ruler of Oz to be placed back in your hands in my absence."

Oscar's eyes widened. " _Me?_ Oh, I _couldn't_ do that! My time as a ruler is done!" He then gestured to the Scarecrow. "If anyone should maintain a leaderly vigil over the land, it should be…"

"Uh, respectfully speaking, Mr. Diggs…" The Scarecrow interjected. "…ruling a land is a job for meat people. If anyone should be entrusted to rule a land in the rightful ruler's absence, it should be one who has the experience to do so. My perfect brains have yet to fail me in making convictions such as this, Oscar. You are the clear choice."

The former ruler of Oz looked entirely hesitant as he thought on this, but as he pondered a response, he noticed that Betsy looked like she was wrestling with troubled thoughts of her own.

"Betsy?" Oscar lingered his gaze upon the Oklahoma girl, who turned her head to the apprentice wizard. "What's wrong, my dear?"

After a moment, Betsy shared her thoughts. "I don't think _anyone_ should go. I…I don't like this. What if she's lyin' t' us? What if we're bein' lured into a trap?"

"That is precisely why Glinda and I are going, Betsy." Locasta assured. "If this is truly a deception, our witchcraft will protect the group from whatever harm they seek to inflict upon us. Just as this meeting has been safeguarded."

"Would it make you feel any better if I had you stay with me as my royal advisor, Betsy?" Oscar offered. "I'd feel better if I had someone like you at my side this time. In addition to Jellia, of course…" He then looked to the head maid curiously. "…assuming she will be staying as well?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Diggs." Jellia assured. "You can count on my support, but only if you agree to assume the throne in the absence of the princess."

"I'll stay too, Osc'r." Betsy confirmed. "Bein' your advis'r sounds like it could be fun."

"Aren't you one of _us_ now, Betsy?" Nimmie noted, feigning an authoritarian tone. "Shouldn't you be getting my permission, young winkie?"

Betsy blushed at this. "Oh, uh…I…I'm sorry, my Empress…" She lowered her head in embarrassment. "…c-can I, uh…can I please…"

Nimmie smiled, nodding as the tin woman spoke. "Yes, you may, Betsy. Seeing as how you and Oscar have been together prior to your arrival in Oz, I think that makes you the clear choice as to who should serve as his advisor."

"I need you to use the Magic Picture and see what you can find out about the situation in Regos, Coregos, and Pingaree." Ozma remarked unto Oscar. "If anything, confirming Gloria's information in the message should ascertain whether or not she was lying. Send a messenger to us if so."

Oscar lowered his head in confirmation. "As you wish, your highness."

"Use your new capabilities wisely, apprentice." Glinda advised. "Try to resist the urge to show off, so to speak."

Oscar nodded to his powerful mentor. "I won't let you down, Glinda."

"Well, with the Wizard of Oz ruling the land with a trusted advisor other than myself, I might as well join the delegation!" The Scarecrow confirmed.

"You should join the group as well, your highness." The Hungry Tiger looked to the Lion as he spoke in his deep and deceptively menacing growl. "I believe the Legion of Courage is doing reconnaissance out there by the gorge. They might want to report their findings to you once we are done with Princess Gloria."

"As-TOOT as always, majordomo." The Lion replied. "Count me in."

"I'll go too, your majesty." Dorothy Gale looked resolute as she spoke. "I know I wouldn't be able to do much, but…"

"But it would make me feel better to have the land's great champion at my side, Dorothy." Ozma smiled. "I should imagine it would be like old times to be joining your three best friends on this journey, don't you think?"

Dorothy nodded, glancing to the Lion, the Scarecrow, and Nick, all of whom had knowing smiles on their faces as well.

"I had the messenger inform Gloria to expect us at lunchtime." Ozma reminded. "If any of you would like to prepare yourselves or change clothes, now is the time. We'll assemble at the south gate of the city. I'll have the red wagon and the Sawhorse waiting for us."

* * *

Trot did not think much of the stone columns she had walked past as she and the old woman that had warned her away from Glinda's Palace neared the gorge separating the Jinxland region from the rest of the Quadling Country. Although she did make out human shapes, the young girl from California never got a good look at their alternately shocked and terrified facial expressions.

Trot saw the high mountains on the other side of the gorge, and it didn't look like there was any way across it. The old woman, nevertheless, gestured to this mountain range when she turned back to the young California girl. "You'll find a much more inviting realm here, pretty one."

The young girl frowned in confusion. "A mountain range?"

The woman giggled. "Oh, no…the realm _within_ the mountain range. Our next stop is Jinxland. I hope you're not scared of heights."

"Huh?" Trot looked even more confused now. "Why do you ask?"

Still grinning, the woman grabbed Trot's right wrist. "Because I wouldn't want you to get queasy when we _jump!_ "

What seemed like a simple push of the robed woman's legs actually catapulted both her and Trot into the skies in a wide arc! The young girl's eyes widened significantly as they sailed over the mountaintops, and then began to fall as fast as natural gravity could plunge them. Fearing that they would both perish from the fall, Trot closed her eyes…

…but they both began slowing significantly as they neared the ground, their feet finally settling harmlessly upon the soft soil beneath them. Once they were back on solid ground, Trot curiously opened her eyes.

What she saw around her were a succession of variously-sized cottages decorated with an abundance of flowers and fruit trees. In the distance, presumably at the end of a nice-looking pathway that was near where she and the woman had landed, Trot saw the towering turrets of a magnificent-looking castle surrounded by trees.

"If you behave yourself, pretty one, I will introduce you to our king." The old woman remarked as she led Trot to what looked like an eight-sided residence. As they drew closer, Trot saw that each side of this house had a door and a window.

As she passed the various cottages, she noticed that the land was unusually silent. Should she not hear the sounds of children playing, at least? Perhaps the creaking noise of tired men or women in rocking chairs, or perhaps the sound of labors such as woodcutting or hammering? About the only things Trot could hear since arriving in this hidden place were the pleasantly idle sounds of singing birds and chirping grasshoppers.

The ambience of the moment began to feel a bit spooky to the girl as they neared the eight-sided home. "Um…if you don't mind, I'd rather not meet any kings today. Can you tell me where I can find…"

At first, the old woman turned to Trot with a visibly irritated look, stopping in her tracks. The California girl similarly stopped, somewhat startled by the woman's expression, her voice going quiet.

In the next moment, though, the woman's expression softened. "Oh, yes. You came to find your friend, didn't you? Blinkie should be able to help you, dearie. Just behave yourself now. She lives at that place there, you know."

Another woman wearing the exact same robes as Trot's guide stepped out of one of the doors facing them, and the girl saw that this woman had a rubenesque figure. The hood was down, however, exposing a head of braided hair parted down the middle, the braids of which were arranged into two buns on either side of her head. "Well, Sima." This woman began. "Found another lucky brat who managed to escape the spell?"

The woman now identified as Sima shook her head. "No, Cheralyn. I actually saw one of those orks drop this one down from the skies just as I was leaving Glinda's palace. I figured I would…save her from Glinda's evils."

Cheralyn lowered to a knee before the young girl as she nodded to Sima. She then looked Trot over as the rubenesque woman frowned in curiosity.

"She'd make an awfully cute witch." Cheralyn noted, smirking as she rose back to her feet.

"I'm here to see, uh…Blinkie." Trot explained. "I'm trying to find a friend."

Cheralyn nodded, wondering how the coven-mistress would react to this particular girl. "You're in luck. She's here, but she's in a meeting with Princess Gloria. Follow me, and behave yourself. No monkeying around, understood?"

Trot nodded, already anxious to meet Blinkie.

Beyond the door, Trot's nose picked up foul odors and her ears heard many unpleasant noises both insect-like and angry in nature. Glancing to her right and left, the now nervous-looking girl saw some of these insects and creatures, and they were a chilling sight. Spiders, crickets, grasshoppers…some of them cross-bred, others misshapen and somewhat sickening in appearance. One of the spiders suddenly landed upon Trot's head, causing her to squeal a shriek of surprise, but Cheralyn was quick to remove the fallen black widow spider from the girl's head before it could do anything rash.

"Pardon Mistress Blinkie's lovelies, dearie." Cheralyn grinned with amusement as she spoke. "They do tend to wander from time to time."

" _Lovelies?_ " Trot was still recovering from the shock. "That was a _spider!_ "

"All life is precious to witches, pretty one." Sima countered. "Even our popularly-misunderstood eight-legged ones."

"Mistress Blinkie is quite good at teaching those who don't understand this a lesson in the folly of under-appreciating non-humans." Cheralyn explained as the three of them continued walking past similarly unpleasant creatures and a variety of ugly-looking items. "Behave yourself, and such a lesson won't be forced upon you."

Passing a row of hanging straps that looked like black leather dog collars, the group then came upon a courtyard in the middle of the home. A long, sturdy-looking post had been planted in the middle of this circular courtyard, and a fireplace could also be seen here. There was no fire raging, but a kettle could be seen hovering above the blackness of the burnt and spent wooden logs below it, held aloft by shaped iron bars.

Other women who were similarly robed were here as well, and another who wore a pointed witch's hat was speaking to a woman wearing more royal-looking gray and white robes. The red-robed women were standing clear of this particular pair, who Trot surmised to be Blinkie and the princess Cheralyn identified as Gloria.

As they waited, it was at this point that Trot saw a single strange creature sail through the skies in a wide arc high above them. The girl got a good look at this creature too, and she was able to make out that the creature looked more like a hairy monkey with wings than any bird she could readily recognize. Hers was the only pair of eyes to notice this winged creature's passing in that moment.

When Trot's eyes returned to where Blinkie and Trot had been speaking, she saw that Cheralyn had stepped over to this particular witch, and was whispering in her ear. The princess looked annoyed by this interruption.

Once Cheralyn had stepped away, Blinkie slowly turned her head towards the young girl. The princess similarly redirected her unpleasant expression to Trot.

A chill ran through the young girl when she saw that a black eyepatch was covering one of her eyes. Ugly scarring could be seen around this eyepatch as the equally ugly gray-haired, one-eyed witch settled her one good eye upon Trot.

Blinkie then leveled an aged index finger towards the girl. "Why is _that_ one here?" The one-eyed witch unpleasantly growled.

Cheralyn shrugged. "She looked cute to me. I figured she could make a good apprentice. It's been awhile since we had new members in the coven."

"An ork brought her near Glinda's palace from the skies, Mistress Blinkie." Sima added.

As the princess gazed upon the innocent-looking girl, a devious thought occurred to her. Such a thought would be dependent on the answer to a single inquiry.

One of Blinkie's hands, however, moved to one of the pockets of her older-looking robes, which were red and black in color. She spoke as the fingers of that hand grasped a packet full of powder. "Her first lesson is for her to understand humankind's ancestry firsthand."

Gloria knew what Blinkie had meant. Obviously, the one-eyed witch had no interest in taking new apprentices, seeing that she was reaching for one of her transformative powders. The pale-skinned princess's own interest in the girl had to come first. "Wait, Blinkie. Not yet."

After a moment in which Blinkie's only good eye looked confusedly to Gloria, the coven leader then lowered her head as the princess moved past her. The eyes of the princess were already on Trot as she approached her.

Once Gloria stopped before the California girl, her expression remained frigid. "I am a princess, girl. Kneel before me."

Trot sighed. "Your highness, I just wanna find…"

"KNEEL BEFORE ME!" Gloria suddenly yelled. "NOW!"

Trot frowned with surprising defiance. "I believe I _won't!_ I just wanna find Cap'n Bill! He got lost at sea! I have to find him!"

Gloria arched an eyebrow. Yes, she thought to herself. This one would be ideal for what she wanted her to do.

But there was still a curiosity the princess needed to address, so she disregarded the young visitor's defiance. "Where do you come from, girl?"

Trot was still frowning, but she responded to this inquiry. "California."

Gloria lowered to a knee, flashing a believable smile. Her voice became just as genteel as it was before the witches had enchanted her. "My name is Gloria. What's yours?"

"I'm Trot."

The princess placed a cold hand upon the girl's shoulder. "I'm sorry I yelled at you like that, Trot. I can help you find your friend. That witch over there…" she indicated Blinkie. "…has special powers. As she serves me, I can order her to help you find him."

She _can,_ Trot thought, but why isn't Gloria actually giving the order? There was obviously a catch. "What do you want me to do?" Trot warily asked.

Gloria's smile looked a little more malevolent now as she explained her favor to Trot. She told her exactly what to say, and when to say it. The California girl was also to be given an object that she needed to hold as she spoke the words.

An inquiry from Trot regarding the favor compelled Blinkie to mention a name when the one-eyed witch carefully answered it.

Glinda.

As Sima had made it apparent to her that Glinda was evil, Trot agreed to do as she had been asked. Perhaps afterwards, Blinkie could lift the spell on all those who had been caught up in Glinda's deceptive enchantment over at her palace.


	3. III: Welcome to Jinxland

**III: Welcome to Jinxland**

As the golden-footed sawhorse…who once looked no different from his namesake until an application of a powerful, life-giving magic powder gave the four-legged steed self-sentience…could go significantly faster than any fleet-footed horse, so the red wagon rolled up in front of the Jinxland gorge a few minutes shy of 12 noon. Although he was not driving, the Lion was in the driver seat scanning the road ahead of them, while the Hungry Tiger had a firm grip at the rear of the wagon, watching the areas behind them as they had moved.

As the group stepped off and out of the wagon, the sawhorse had to voice his gripe. "What was with all those stone columns back there? Made my final approach feel like an obstacle course!"

"We can ask the princess about that." Glinda replied. "Truthfully, I must admit to feeling a bit famished. If the princess has not provided lunch, perhaps I can conjure us a banquet."

Nick looked across the gorge, seeing only a mountain range. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

"I can confirm dat much, Nick." The Lion replied. "Jinxland's a hidden place. Smack dab right in da middle o' dose mountains is da kingdom we're lookin' for."

"Haven't they ever been anywhere outside of the kingdom?" The Tiger wondered aloud. "There's got to be a way in."

"I suspect this is why they allowed Ozma the benefit of bringing guests." Locasta deduced. "Gloria probably figured that someone like me or Glinda could provide the group with a means to get across the gorge."

"Oh, I'm sure Glinda could get us across in the blink of an eye, couldn't you?" Dorothy looked to the red-robed Good Witch of the South.

"Well, actually…as I said, I'm a bit hungry." Glinda admitted. She then pulled her magic wand out. "I'm afraid I'm going to need a little help from everyone going in."

"Let me guess." Ozma remarked, smiling. "We all take hold of the wand, and the wand will take us in, right?"

Glinda nodded. "In the blink of an eye, at the count of three."

The entire group gathered upon Glinda's wand, each of them contacting it with the touch of a finger, if not by a solid grasp. Only the sawhorse was left behind. He did not protest this, however, as he knew it was his duty to keep watch on the red wagon, making sure it was there when the group was ready to return.

"One…two… _three!_ " Glinda called out.

In the very next moment, they had instantaneously relocated to the outskirts of Jinxland, and were conveniently on the path leading to the castle in the distance.

As they resumed moving, Glinda suddenly lowered to a knee, looking as if she were out of breath. The others moved to her in their sudden concern.

"I…I am fine." Glinda raised a hand in assurance. "Using magic on an empty stomach obviously carries great risk, but…we can't let this diplomatic opportunity wait any further." Upon this assurance, they all dispersed a bit. Nick, however, moved to Glinda.

"Fortunately, I've no need for food." Nick pulled her up from the ground and allowed her to use the tin emperor as a means to stay on her feet. "Careful steps now, Glinda."

As Nick and Glinda were speaking, however, the Lion…standing the furthest from the others…suddenly caught a scent. The nearby Scarecrow was the first to pick up on the Lion's sudden curiosity.

The straw-stuffed advisor moved to the leonine monarch. Dorothy also noticed this, and moved towards them. "What is it, Lion?" the Scarecrow asked.

The Cowardly Lion made a few more whiffs. " _Rrruff!_ A strangely familiar scent!" He looked to the Scarecrow warily. "We're bein' _watched!_ " The lion hissed.

As the others began to move towards the castle, the King of the Quadling beasts, Dorothy, and the Scarecrow were suddenly seized from behind, and pulled into the thick bushes behind them! A variety of furry paws had been placed against their mouths, so they could not voice their surprised reactions.

"Wait!" Ozma stopped the others, glancing over to where she thought the rest of the entourage had been standing. "Where's the Scarecrow?"

"Where's the Lion?" Nick asked, sharing in the sudden curiosity.

"Where's Dorothy?" Locasta wondered aloud.

"We mustn't keep the princess waiting, your highness!" Glinda advised. "Once we're inside, I can see to the others. Once I have had something to eat, of course."

"I could use a few slabs of raw meat myself." The Hungry Tiger admitted.

As they began their approach to the castle, Ozma looked around the general area, noting the eerie silence. "Something is not right." She observed aloud. "There are cottages all around the area…but…I'm not hearing any natural activity."

"You're not usually this hungry, Glinda." Nick noted as they continued to move. "I would think you'd at least have a snack before joining a diplomatic function."

"I…would rather explain later, good emperor." The red-robed sorceress answered. "I will be alright. It's the more powerful enchantments that I will be incapable of performing for the moment."

"That protective shell we conjured for the meeting exhausted me as well." Locasta admitted. "We can only hope that Gloria was true to her word when she explained herself in that message."

Although their approach was as cautious as possible, they eventually reached the castle, which had a wide open entranceway. Once they reached it, they went past the entrance and continued their progress into the castle, still finding little in the way of presences. It was as if the whole of Jinxland were deserted for some reason.

Once they were in the castle's courtyard, they finally heard a familiar voice coming from a shadowy area ahead of them. "Welcome, princess Ozma. A warm welcome to your friends as well."

Gloria stepped forth from the shadows, while the rest of the entourage stood straight up and offered their bows and curtseys of respect.

They also noticed that she was not wearing the same colorful dress she had on when her illusionary semblance was reciting her message. This royal gown was a gloomy mixture of greys, whites, and blacks. Nevertheless, her smile was both inviting and disarming as she stepped over to Ozma, who similarly curtseyed with respect.

"Forgive my indulgence, princess, but we were expecting a nourishing luncheon." the fairy princess asked. "If you do not share the common custom of an afternoon lunch in Jinxland, we can have Glinda conjure a meal for us all. Once she herself has been fed, that is."

It was difficult for Locasta to clearly ascertain through Ozma's greeting, but she thought she heard a hushed voice speak words. The voice, from where the Good Witch of the North was currently standing, was northeast.

"Yes, I've heard so much about Glinda." Gloria stepped over to the smiling Good Witch of the South. "She is the appointed vassal of the Quadling Country, right?"

Ozma nodded. "Indeed, she…" The fairy ruler suddenly felt quite stiff at her feet. The feeling crept up her legs. "…she is."

Nick saw that he, too, could not move his legs all of a sudden. "Hey!"

A crackling noise could now be heard near each of the individuals in Ozma's group. Locasta, who had felt a sense of dread, looked down in her confusion, noting that the crackling sound was coming from below each of them…

…and she confirmed that the lower part of her body was not only stiffening, but turning a pale gray! "Ozma…" Locasta's voice sounded weird as the grayness crept upwards, solidifying her torso. Her voice sounded like a phonograph record beginning to slow down.

Gloria, who had turned away from the group, stepped a couple of paces away from them, a slight smile on her face. "I had hoped that there would be more of you in your little group, Ozma…but I can deal with the rest of them in due time. They'll all wind up no different from what is happening to you now."

The Tiger let out an angry roar when he noticed that half his body could not move. The tin-plated emperor found himself similarly unable to move his arms by the time he noticed the crackling sounds.

Although Ozma had her wand, her own torso and arms…and the wand itself…had solidified, transmuting to gray stone as she spoke her last words, again sounding like a slowing phonograph record. "What iss theeee meeeeeeaaaaaannnniiiiiiinnnnng ooooof thiiiiiiii…."

By the time Ozma's voice had gone quiet, and the crackling noise had stopped, the fairy princess, Glinda, Locasta, the Hungry Tiger, and Nick Chopper had become a group of cold, gray stone statues!

Gloria had a satisfied smile on her face when she turned back around. She then walked slowly over to each of the new statues, amusedly looking each of them over as she moved. She also heard the group of witches, positioned on the upper balcony of the throne room's second floor, whispering to each other.

"Bring the girl down here!" Gloria then called out.

After a few minutes had passed, Blinkie and her witches…who were hiding in the shadows of the balcony…brought Trot down to face the princess once again. This time, however, they seemed a little more mean-spirited. They gloated and giggled over things the young girl did not understand.

Gloria's face showed its deceptively kind expression once again as she smiled to Trot. "Well done! You did wonderfully! The three most powerful forces of magic in Oz, defeated all at once. They will make fine trophies for me to display." As she spoke, she moved to the confused girl and grabbed her hands, roughly snatching the marble-sized stone she had been given.

Gloria then looked to Blinkie with a much more cruel expression. "She's all yours." She fixed one more quick and uncaring glance to Trot before turning away.

The visitor from California then turned to Blinkie, who made a subtle gesture with her fingers. Trot looked anxious now. "Could you please help me find…" Trot, however, suddenly drew a blank. One moment, she had wanted to ask about Bill Weedles. The next, any and all knowledge of that name, and what he meant to Trot, was _gone._ "…uhhh…"

"Find who? Or what?" Blinkie arched an eyebrow as the other witches in her coven, standing nearby, giggled and tittered. "Your _mind?_ Have you suddenly gone _stupid,_ girl?"

Trot's hands went to her head as her mouth hung open, her eyes cluelessly wide and her eyebrows raised. "I…uhhh…. _whuuh…_ "

Cheralyn stepped over to the visibly confused girl, smirking. "I think the word you're looking for…is _duuuuh!_ "

The other witches laughed cruelly as Cheralyn shoved the girl towards the witches, who began mercilessly pushing and shoving her around. Sima gestured towards Trot's feet as she spoke, mocking the young girl further. "Stupid, stupid, stupid. So stupid, she ties her shoelaces together! How _pathetic!_ "

Trot stumbled to the ground, landing hard on the floor below. Although the visibly befuddled girl could not comprehend why, the shoelaces of her shoes had indeed been tied close together. " _Whuuuh…_ " the girl began crawling around, lost in the haze of her magically-induced idiocy as the other merciless young witches continued to laugh gleefully. "… _whuuuh..._ "

"Alright, that's enough." Blinkie finally raised a hand in restraint. "Sima, get the shoes off of this idiot's feet. She won't be needing them anymore."

Sima moved to the crawling girl and pulled off the shoes, tossing them to the side. As Trot had crawled near where Blinkie was standing, she grabbed the girl's right shoulder and pulled her up.

The other hand of the one-eyed witch was back in the pocket where she had kept the packet she had wanted to use on the girl earlier. Left slack-jawed, cross-eyed, and wavering where she stood by the other witches, Blinkie tore open the packet and poured its sparkling brown contents over Trot's head.

The powder, upon leaving the packet, became more of a mist as everyone stood clear of the California girl, who began growing a pelt of thick brown hair all over her body. "We warned you not to monkey about, stupid girl. You'll probably be a lot better off _being_ one!"

Trot's shoulders hunched forward, the explosion of fur beneath her clothes visibly stretching them, as her face painlessly swelled to a rounded simian muzzle, her brows beetling as she blinked in confusion. Her arms grew longer, her legs shrank, her belly expanded, and a long tail grew out from her posterior.

She could not even comprehend what she had become, but everyone else saw a fat, brown-furred monkey where a young human girl from California once stood. The witches cruelly began to mock her further, acting like monkeys themselves as they laughed and laughed in a bullying fashion.

Sima and Cheralyn laid cantrips down on Trot's clothes, which became oversized to the point where the monkey was covered in them, and the witches laughed more seeing their simian victim try to make her way out of them.

Gloria, who had been paying witness to Trot's bullying and her transformation, chose this moment to walk by the group, smirking down to the befuddled monkey within her own clothes as she passed the simian creature.

One of Gloria's shoes, however, came down on the monkey's exposed tail. Trot's loud screech of pain, combined with the unexpected loss of the princess's balance, caused the startled, pale-skinned princess to spill to the ground!

As the witches moved, in their surprise, to tend to the fallen princess, Trot finally made her way out of the oversized clothes, and then saw a curious round object the size of a marble roll by. She picked it up, looking at it curiously.

Still lost to the haze of her magical idiocy, she popped the smooth, marble-sized gray stone in her mouth.

And _swallowed_ it.

Nothing had happened to Trot when she swallowed this stone, which a human hand…her own…had held moments before in honoring Gloria's request to petrify her foes, although it was at this moment that when Trot next glanced upon the muttering group of women, the awareness that these individuals were bad people began to register in her slowly-restoring mind.

It then became apparent that she needed to leave. _Now._

As Gloria suddenly realized that the stone she had in her hand was gone, the monkey began to remember that the bright light ahead of her was the way out of the place she was in.

The castle! Trot suddenly remembered. Yes! She was in a castle, and she needed to get out of it. _Fast!_ Her pace quickened considerably, even if she found that she was moving in a very unusual fashion. She needed to get away from these terrible women, who had asked her to do something bad so that she could ask about…about…

… _Bill?_

"FIND THAT MONKEY!" She heard a young voice…Gloria's…cry out angrily. Instincts set in. She needed to climb. Climb, and swing. She moved too slowly, she thought. As she moved, Trot felt more and more weird.

The instinct to hide, however, seemed evident now, and she chose a shadowy area outside the castle that was large enough to conceal her as the witches hurried out to look for…

…the _monkey?_

Looking down upon her arms within her hiding place, keeping as quiet as possible, she saw an abundance of brown hair. A girl's hair should not be this hairy, she thought!

With the haze of her magically-induced…and temporary…idiocy evaporating, she began to feel at her face, her eyes wide with shock.

 _She_ was the monkey the witches were looking for!

Trot felt that her short black head of pageboy-styled hair, at least, was unaffected, but she now had to cope with the considerable warmth of having a body covered in thick fur.

As she waited for the witches to move further from her, her initial shock gave way to more of a curiosity. She knew who, and what, she used to be, but…she was an _animal_ now. She had actually been transformed, physically, by magic!

Even with a mind so young, the possibility occurred to Trot that this form might be of some use, having been taken to a zoo back in California as a school trip and, during this trip, having watched active monkeys at play. This thought remained on her mind once she deemed the witches far enough from her position to leave her hiding place and get some distance between her and the witches that had clearly deceived Trot.

Blinkie screamed her frustrations unto the skies when their initial search for the monkey proved fruitless. The other witches, all of whom were logically less powerful in witchcraft compared to their mistress, recoiled fearfully. They had seen Blinkie's rage before, and it was never a pretty sight. At times, her rage caused one of her subordinates to suffer in some way.

Sima, however, was visibly puzzled. "I don't understand. She's an _idiot_ now. How could she…"

Blinkie sighed audibly in her frustration. "That was a _cantrip!_ " She growled, cursing herself for her own vain urge. "Cantrip magic does not last very long, does it? I wanted to _scare_ that little brat! _Scatter!_ Search every cottage in Jinxland! It shouldn't be too hard to find a monkey in a deserted town! Don't come back to me unless you've found something! Now GO!"

Her subordinates nodded, speaking as one. "Yes, Mistress!" They then rushed away, heading for the abundance of empty cottages they had been charged to search.

Gloria stepped over to the space just behind Blinkie's right shoulder, watching the one-eyed witch's coven-mates hurry towards the cottages. "We can't go any farther with our plans without the Medusa Stone. I need to be able to deal with my enemies the same way I petrified Krewl, the people of Jinxland, and Ozma's little group."

"That monkey is the only one who could have taken it. I'm _certain_ of it." Blinkie responded. "Even if she's far from the cottages, I don't expect her to be able to pass the mountains, or even cross that gorge."

"I can't take that chance!" Gloria growled. "Even if we have to surround all of Jinxland in a bubble, I want that stone found!"

"I think I may be able to help you with that, dearest."

The princess and the witch turned to where they had heard the youthful voice. He was right behind them.

Gloria smirked when her eyes fell upon him. "Still trying to earn my favor, Goog?"

"Begging your majesty's pardon, I can't help but be curious as to your wealthy courtier's claim." Blinkie then turned her gaze to the young man called Goog L'Goo, who was once a much, much older man before the one-eyed witch gave him stolen youth. "Explain yourself."

"I may have lost my… _special_ bag of tricks," Goog replied. "But I do still have the means to seal Jinxland off from Oz…and all her royal highness needs to do? Is to say 'please'."

Gloria sighed heavily at this, shutting her eyes irritably. Thirty-nine times. Thirty-nine times, this man attempted to win the hand of the princess Gloria. The pale-skinned, blue-veined noble figured that when Blinkie gave him the youth she stole from that annoying Gardener's boy, he would have understood how impossible it was for anyone to expect any affection from a young girl like Gloria.

Still, as cold as her heart was, she could still effectively feign affection, and so with a fetching bat of her eyes and a convincingly alluring smile, Gloria did the only thing that would ensure that the fugitive monkey would not escape her wrath.

She even, quite convincingly, sidled up to him as she sweetly spoke the word, loathsome as it was for her to speak it. "Pleeeease."

* * *

Bo, Rouse, and Brocius relocated Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and their Lion commander to the empty cottage they had chosen as a secret planning area, as per Ali's suggestion. Their three 'captives' were given silent assurances that they were with the legion as they relocated to the cottage.

The cottage in question had a basement level…a fruit cellar…and it was here that the rest of the legion…along with their new friend, Pon…had stationed themselves. Standing guard at the door to the cellar, on the other side of it, was the rhino called Biff, who nodded as their newest guests were brought downstairs.

"We can speak freely, but if Biff hears any noises, we naturally need to go quiet." Bo explained as she provided wooden stools for their guests.

"How about we start by youse mugs explainin' yourselves?" The frowning Lion growled. "We're missin' a very important dippa'matic…"

"I'm…afraid…your friends may be no different from the rest of us by now." The old man interjected, in his shaky voice. "Cold, gray stone shapes. They were all turned to stone, and…they were removed from Jinxland. Scattered about, on the other side of…of the gorge."

Dorothy's eyes widened in her surprise. The Scarecrow and the Lion's responses were quite similar. "You mean…all those stone columns we saw…they were _people?_ " The Kansas girl asked.

Mournfully, the old man moved to a wicker cradle that was nearby. He removed the sky blue blanket within the cradle, uncovering the stone form of a sleeping infant child!

Dorothy looked even _more_ horrified at this. "M…mercy me…"

The old man placed the blanket back over the petrified child as he spoke. "This was Gloria's response to the rebellion that had formed. I don't know how she did it, but…I just know those witches had something to do with it."

The Scarecrow placed a stuffed hand upon the old man's shoulder. "We'd like to know the name of our savior, if you can share it with us."

"I am Pon, the Gardener's boy." He then lowered his head. "Well…I _used_ to be…"

"He also used to be a young boy." Brocius added. "Seems there's a witch here who likes stealing youth and giving it to others without asking."

"Blinkie is _very_ dangerous, and…and quite paranoid." Pon explained. "She and her coven of young witches were working for King Krewl before he met the same fate as everyone else."

The straw-stuffed advisor frowned in confusion. "Wait a minute…you said this witch likes _stealing_ youth? And…giving it to others?"

Pon nodded. "His name is Googly-Goo. Well…it was when he was a doddering old man, but he's a rich man, either way, and a well-traveled one, too. He appealed to King Krewl to arrange a marriage with princess Gloria when he returned from a trip abroad. He apparently had some business on an island called Pingaree."

"Pingaree?" The Scarecrow arched a painted brow. "I've heard of that island. There are a lot of pearl fishers there. Many of those pearls have been said to be strange and unusual."

"We used one of those pearls to get here, actually." Bo noted. "Koup flew us all over the gorge and the mountains."

"Felt GOOD to be strong!" The winged baboon flexed a non-existent muscle. "Dat blue rock be handy."

"I still think one of us should use that pearl to knock some sense into that princess, and those witches." Rouse griped.

But Pon shook his head. "No. That's too much power, and besides…I won't have any harm come to the princess. Not if…not if she can be saved."

"You have enchanted Pingaree pearls with you?" The Scarecrow asked.

"Googly-goo did, but…I managed to steal the bag he kept them in." Pon answered. "I…don't know what the other things in that bag can do, but I know he bragged about the blue pearl making someone stronger."

"We didn't have any other way to get over the mountains." Shade reasoned. "After what Koup told us following his recon flight, and then what Pon had told us, we felt it prudent to improvise a way to get into Jinxland."

As Shade spoke, Rouse's thoughts remained focused on what she perceived to be the only solution to everyone's problems: the blue pearl. She had already envisioned having it in her possession, taking on anyone and everyone that stood in her way, blasting them aside with all her might as if they were made of paper. Before they could react. It secretly infuriated her that Pon had to be so stingy with that bag, blue pearl and all. She never liked any of those crazy speeches about acting responsibly. Rouse got by more on her being a tigress of action than one of discretion.

"It's a smart move." Dorothy remarked. "Now we just have to put our heads together and figure out a plan to save our friends, and everyone else in…"

Biff's voice interjected. "Footsteps! They're coming closer!"

Everyone went quiet as Biff continued to listen. The footsteps, unfortunately, came closer to the door, and a gentle knock was then heard upon it.

The voice that followed was that of an adolescent male. "We know someone's down there. You really think you can hide your presence from spellcasters? You might as well come out of there. Blinkie's witches are surrounding this place right now, and they're prepared to destroy the cottage if you don't surrender yourselves."

Pon turned his head to Bo. "That's Googly-goo." He whispered.

"Is there any other way outta here?" The Lion asked, his silent tone showing a touch of fear.

Brawn shook his head. "Just that door." He hissed back.

Ali lowered his equine head. "We're sitting ducks then." He turned his head to the Lion. "We have no other choice, commander."

"Make sure you bring Pon up, too." The voice then spoke. "I have a feeling he has something that belongs to me."

The Scarecrow hung his stuffed head. "Let's go, then." He gestured to Biff. "Open that door." He then called out his next words. "We're coming out!"

"You think he's bluffing about those witches?" Dorothy whispered as the group moved.

"We can only hope, Dorothy." The Scarecrow quietly answered. "Besides...whatever those witches do to us, we can only hope that the Wizard will find out about us and get us out of this."

Walking out of the door, they saw that it was indeed just one man, but there were a couple of red-robed young women there as well. The others in the legion caught the scent of other witches aside from the two witches inside the cottage, and their scents were coming from the outside.

The wicked-looking young man, who had a head of pageboy-styled brown hair, stood at a distance from the group when he next addressed them. "Good, you have that weak old fool with you. Now, you all get the benefit of a choice. Surrender my bag, and _everything_ in it, or my witch friends will begin destroying those stone statues that used to be your friends."

Silence followed as the young man waited for a response. The witches then began silently chanting unintelligible words.

Goog then let out a loud sigh. "Shall we count to three? As you can see, the witches are already chanting the words for the necessary enchantment."

Rouse, who was standing near Pon, saw that the old man had the bag in a defiantly tight grip. She moved to him and pressed the sharp claws on her right paw against this hand. Pon gasped with the pain as Rouse grabbed the bag his open hand released.

All eyes turned to Pon and Rouse. The eyes of the tigress went to the wealthy young courtier. "You want the bag?" She then stepped a little closer to Goog.

As Bo watched, along with everyone else, she hoped that the tigress had a plan. Perhaps she would serve as a distraction. Maybe even a sacrifice of some kind so that everyone else could escape. The cottage had two ways out of it, after all. Even if it was surrounded.

"Catch."

As everyone watched in horror, Rouse swung her arm back to toss the bag to Goog…

…but she tossed it to Koup instead, and quickly lunged for the pair of witches with an angry roar!

Bo snapped her furry head to the surprised baboon. "GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" Brandishing her staff, she whistled it around towards Goog with lethal precision. The Lion also lunged at Goog angrily.

Biff, Brocius, and Brawn smashed their way out of the cottage, providing the loud distraction Koup needed to soar up into the skies above, holding the bag!

Bo's staff went low, smacking Goog's legs hard. He collapsed to the ground just as the Lion landed upon him. He then let out a very loud roar right at the young man's head, which easily intimidated him, judging by the look on his now-frightened face.

"Please…please… _don't eat me!_ " Goog whined.

"Why not?" The Lion fixed a hungry gaze upon him as he spoke. "It's lunchtime, isn't it? _Rrrruff!_ "

"I just wanted my bag!" Goog was visibly sweating now. "That old fool _stole_ it from me!"

Dorothy looked over to where Rouse had attacked the two witches…

…but she saw the two witches whispering unintelligible words into her feline ears. By the blinking of the eyes of the tigress, it looked as if she were being mesmerized!

"HEY!" Shade shouted. She then lunged at the witches…

…but Rouse's own blow intercepted her charge, and Shade collapsed unto a piece of wooden furniture.

Rouse came alive in the next moment, attacking both Bo and the Lion next, with great ferocity as the Scarecrow and Dorothy watched in horror. Shade was quick to recover as she lunged once again at the witches.

The Scarecrow also noticed that Pon had disappeared. This was bad! He snapped his stuffed head to the horrified Kansas girl. "Get out of here, Dorothy! Find Koup and see if he can get you back to the Emerald City!"

The last thing Dorothy heard, on her way out, was a loud and thunderous bang from beneath the cottage. She raced outside and ran as fast as she could, regardless of whatever chaos was raging outside.

Although she feared that a spell from one of the witches outside the cottage would suddenly impede her progress, nothing happened to her as she ran. In her determination to get away, and find a path to a safe place, she found the path leading to the castle and followed it, scanning the skies for any sign of the flying baboon she had been tasked to find.

As she did, however, she saw what looked to be a transparent, silvery surface forming out of thin air, effectively filtering the bright beauty of the afternoon sky. The barrier weakened the power of the sunlight shining down from above, and Dorothy stopped for a moment to look upon this strange occurrence.

Dorothy was close enough to the castle for a certain one-eyed witch to spot her approach from one of the castle's front battlements. A devious smile played on her face as she recognized this particular girl, through past magical scryings, to be the owner of a certain little black dog who viciously resisted her attempts to claim him.

Unfortunately, this girl did not have the little dog with her this time, but it didn't matter, as another wicked thought occurred to her. As Dorothy continued to approach the castle, she intoned a silent enchantment which caused her to disappear completely.

The castle's throne room was very dark. Dorothy spotted stone statues, but she could not make out any details on these particular stone columns.

The shape on one particular statue, however, looked a bit familiar to the Kansas girl, and she approached it to get a closer look.

It was a girl's shape. The statue's head had the detail of a long drape of curly hair, and when she was close to the statue, she could make out the presence of a circlet upon her head with two large, matching flower heads on either side of her…

Dorothy's eyes widened. "Oh, no…" she fearfully whispered. "…Ozma…"

The sound of a teenage girl's wicked laughter followed, and torches fastened into sconces surrounding the room suddenly flared to life, bathing the room in light.

Dorothy's gaze fearfully moved to another statue…and spotted Emperor Nick Chopper, whose body was not so much made of tin as it was solid gray stone.

Another stone statue Dorothy spotted, to her horror, was that of the Good Witch of the South. Glinda had a look of unpleasant surprise on her frozen face, as did the stone statue that was once her coven-sister, Locasta. Near Locasta, it appeared that the Hungry Tiger was caught in mid-roar as his muscled feline body had petrified.

Another round of cruel laughter came from the top of a small set of stairs leading up to a golden throne, upon which a young woman wearing gray and black robes was seen to be the source of the wicked giggling.

"Awwww, poor little peasant girl has lost her friends." The frost-hearted princess taunted. "Whatever will you do now, you powerless little girl? Who will you hide behind?"

"But…we came in _peace!_ We never wanted to hurt you!" Dorothy lamented. "Why did you do this?"

"You may call them friends, little one…" Gloria leaned in closer to Dorothy. "…but I call them potential threats. Ozma came here with two witches. Why? Because she wanted to force me to submit to her rulership! Make me nothing more than a vassal! I will _never_ bow to anyone's superiority other than my own, peasant!"

"No! She's not like that at all!" Dorothy tried to hold back tears of despair as she spoke. "Please, you've got her all wrong! You must set them all free from this spell!"

"I _must?_ " Gloria arched an eyebrow. "You presume far too much, silly girl! Answer me this… _why_ did she have someone as pathetic as _you_ join her on this trip?"

"Your highness, please…they're my friends…all of them…" Tears now rolled down from her eyes as she looked over to the stone statue Ozma had become.

"'They're my friends! All of them!' _Boo-hoo!_ " Gloria taunted, openly making fun of Dorothy's pleading tone. "How much more _bawling_ am I to expect from you? I like these statues just the way they are! They decorate my throne room quite nicely! You should have been with them when it happened, so I wouldn't have to waste my time hearing your ridiculous pleas!"

The Kansas girl tried not to continue crying, but she couldn't help it. All of her friends had been neutralized by this cold-hearted young princess. Even as she was crying, she was wondering how the princess had done it. Was she a powerful magician? Was it the result of a magic artifact of some kind? She had no answers for the moment.

There was only the inescapable despair of having lost some very powerful friends to a horrible enchantment.

Gloria did not wish to see the farmgirl grovel to her any further. The message had been sent, and now, it was time to send her away to face the fate that had been previously agreed upon.

"Oh, I have had _enough_ of you! _Begone!_ " An irritiated-looking Gloria waved a hand out in emphasis of the dismissal. "Be grateful I am letting you leave, rather than _petrify_ you where you stand!"

Dorothy looked to Gloria with a more defiant look on her face now, wiping her tears. "I have _other_ friends! They'll find out what happened here! They'll come for us!" She fired a finger out towards Gloria, who rolled her eyes in disinterest. "They'll come for _you!_ "

Dorothy then raced through the entrance to the throne room, running as fast as she could.

The Kansas girl then gasped aloud as she came to a dead stop outside the castle, her eyes wide. Were they deceiving her? Was this green-skinned woman with the gnarly nose and the black dress the very same Wicked Witch of the West she had melted years ago? Had she somehow been resurrected?

She had no broom with her, but the Wicked Witch of the West grinned menacingly as she slowly stepped towards Dorothy.

If this really _was_ her, a chill ran down her spine when she realized that this time, Dorothy had no ruby slippers to keep her safe!

"Going somewhere, my lit-tle pret-ty?" The green-skinned witch growled menacingly. The voice was just as wicked as she remembered it! They paced in a half-circle as the resurrected witch spoke. She delighted in making threatening movements which made Dorothy visibly react with quick gasps.

The witch then took steps toward Dorothy, and the visibly shocked Kansas girl took fearful steps backwards, distancing themselves from the castle.

"No…this is…this is impossible…" Dorothy fearfully remarked. "H-How could you…"

It was then that she felt a strip of leather wrap around her throat from behind. Her hands flew to this strap as it tightened. Dorothy thought it was an attempt to strangle her, but after a moment, she was let go, and she was pushed forward towards the Wicked Witch of the West…

…who suddenly shimmered out of existence, replaced by an old woman wearing a set of red robes, a witch's hat, and an eyepatch. She smirked to Dorothy as the Kansas girl stumbled to the ground in front of her.

The Kansas girl angled her head up to the old crone. She frowned defiantly as the one-eyed witch cackled with great amusement, feeling more angry over the cruel deception now. A flame deep inside Dorothy grew, and her angry eyes reflected this growing rage.

Blinkie crossed her arms, still smirking down to Dorothy. "And now, you are in your proper place, Dorothy Gale. At my feet. I may not be the Wicked Witch of the West, but when you killed her, you killed the best teacher of the 'craft I ever had. Now that you're mine, I'm going to enjoy humiliating you, witchkiller."

The one-eyed witch did not expect the solid blow from Dorothy's balled fist as she rose to her feet, but the hard impact to Blinkie's face sent her to the ground as the defiant Kansas girl raced past her to continue her escape attempt.

Cheralyn stepped over next to her mistress. She raised her hands threateningly, as if to begin casting a spell. "I'll teach her not to disrespect you, Mistress Blinkie!"

"Don't bother." Blinkie began to rise to her feet, rubbing her throbbing chin as they both saw Dorothy slow to a halt once again. "She's not going anywhere."

As Blinkie approached, Dorothy brought a hand to her head. It seemed as if she were trying to fight a powerful mental enchantment that had come over her. "She's going to stay with me now, you see. I own her, and I intend to remind her of what I feel she deserves to be."

When they caught up to Dorothy, Cheralyn looked upon her face, and reacted with some surprise as the champion of Oz dropped to her knees. "Why, Mistress! Her eyes! Are you going to…"

"Oh yes. Very slowly." Stepping over to Dorothy, Blinkie ran a hand over her hair as the Kansas girl tried to blink out of what was overcoming her mind, her hands now hanging loosely in front of her. The wicked magic was far too strong for her to capably resist. "I had once wanted an endearing little four-legged creature she owns, but it _bit_ me and ran off. Well…if I can't have him, I'll take _her_ instead."

Although she continued to try and resist the power of the collar that had been wrapped around her neck, new patterns of thought began to override Dorothy's human mind. Instincts far more primitive and…animalistic. She tried to say something. Scream something. All she managed were slight moans as she awaited a command from the only voice the collar had now bound her to respond to.

Blinkie stepped in front of the quivering Kansas girl, whose wide, blackened, dog-like eyes stared forward hopelessly as a single tear rolled down from the corner of one of those eyes. The satisfied crone rubbed beneath the girl's chin, compelling her to instinctively angle her head up towards Blinkie, as she spoke.

"Follow, Dorothy." Blinkie commanded. "Follow your Mistress Blinkie to your new home. Thaaaat's a good girl."

Blinkie's other witches, save of course for the ones she had sent with Goog L'Goo, emerged from their hiding places as their mistress began walking slowly in the direction of her eight-sided home. Dorothy, her upper body now hunched forward, obediently rose up from the ground and followed behind her, the girl's canine eyes continuing to stare straight ahead.

High above, watching below from a tree branch, a winged baboon watched the group go.

"Uh-oh." Koup quietly observed. "Dis be not good."

* * *

As the Scarecrow was primarily a thinker, and not much of a brawler, all the stuffed royal advisor could do was to head back down into the fruit cellar to see if he would find Pon cowering in a hiding space, making an attempt to stay out of sight.

He found Pon, all right…but the old man was not cowering at all.

In fact, as the straw-stuffed former ruler of Oz began heading down the stairs, Pon moved right past him, both hands balled into fists. The old man moved as if he was in the perfect picture of health, too!

A loud bang followed, the mild tremor of which had the Scarecrow stumbling down the stairs a bit. Several other bangs followed. They weren't as loud as the first one, but the sounds of female groans and shrieks followed each one.

About a minute later, an eerie silence followed.

The Scarecrow took slow, careful steps back up the stairs, hoping he would not have to contend with a witch-sent fireball upon reappearing at the top step. Although he did indeed see a scene of full-on carnage…

…he was relieved to see that those who were friends and allies were recovering from the battle.

The witches, however…and the young man Pon called Googly-goo…were gone.

The only one who was down and more or less out was the tigress, who Bo stood over as the panda recovered from the battle. Bo looked like she took a few good hits herself as she winced over hard shots that Rouse had inflicted on her furry body. The Scarecrow also noticed the unconscious form of the Cowardly Lion beneath the ruins of a table.

The only one who looked completely unaffected and unscathed, ironically, was the old man in the center of the cottage's interior ruins. He looked weak again, but that was probably because his hands were open. The Scarecrow had of course deduced that when Pon had passed him coming up the stairs, the mentioned blue pearl…the one that granted increased strength…was in one of his fists.

Apparently, the crafty Gardener's boy…or rather, former boy…had removed the blue pearl from the bag prior to Rouse taking it.

Biff, Brocius, Brawn, and Ali re-entered the ruined cottage interior a moment later. "It's confirmed, discipline officer." Brocius reported. "Those witches are gone. No doubt they magically relocated themselves. Or someone else did."

"We sure gave 'em one heck of a scare, though." Brawn observed.

Bo gestured to Pon. "More _him_ than us. I've never seen an old man cause this much damage."

The Scarecrow indicated Rouse. "Unconscious?"

Bo nodded. "Rouse was _very_ tough to take down, though. Hopefully, that mesmerism the witches attempted on her was broken."

"That's usually how it works." The Scarecrow responded, shrugging. "I just hope that Dorothy was able to find that winged baboon."

The Lion sat up at this point, shoving aside the broken wood covering him. He shook his head in his attempt to regain his senses.

Pon slowly stepped closer to the king of the Quadling beasts. "Are you…are you all right?"

The Lion nodded as he rose to his furry feet. "Yeah…I just need another moment." He then turned his head to Pon. "Y' know…for an old guy, ya sure do have a mean right hook."

This was the first moment he saw the old man actually smile. He lowered his head somewhat bashfully, too, as the conscious members of the Legion of Courage formed on their commanding king.

"Now I need youse mugs ta listen carefully." The Lion raised a paw in emphasis. " _No shame._ Dey may have gotten away, but we showed dose witchy dames we got muscle, an' we ain't afraid ta use it. If da Tiger were here, he'd be just as proud a' each an' ev'ry one o' you as I am. Now we need ta think about diggin' in here."

"We should check the other cottages." Bo suggested aloud. "If they're all empty, we should use them to our advantage."

"Maybe even alternate our presences between them. Spread out, so to speak." Ali added. "Clustering in one place for too long is never wise."

"Excellent idea." The Scarecrow remarked. "I'll help you all go over those cottages. If there are stone statues in there, we should get them down in this house's fruit cellar."

"If you don't mind, I'll stay and keep a vigil on the cellar." Biff offered. "I can help move any statues you find, though."

"Keep an eye out for Koup, too." Brocius added.

"And Dorothy." The Lion reminded. "Hopefully, dey'll both come back tagedda."

The shifting of rubble and a feminine moan evidenced Rouse's return to consciousness. Warily, Bo and Shade tensed for a possible fight as the tigress sat up and shook her head.

She then noticed the panther and the panda looking warily at her. "Eh? What?"

Bo couldn't help but grin with pride. "I beat you."

In that moment, they could not tell if Rouse's mind was still bewitched…

…but their guard relaxed when the tigress visibly smirked in response, and mocked Bo's tone. "'I beat you'." Shade smiled as she helped her black-striped rival to her feet. "You got _lucky._ "

"Ya can say dat again, Rouse." The Lion reminded. "Lucky we were able ta knock you out. Udda-wise, you'd be standin' wit dem witches like a zombie. I think you owe someone a 'thank you', if ya ask me."

But Bo raised a paw in restraint. "We get everyone restored, and bring those witches to justice. _That's_ when you thank me, Rouse."

The tigress nodded with genuine gratitude. "Will do, discipline officer."

The Scarecrow stepped over behind the Lion to whisper in his furry ear. "You sure put together one heck of a team there, Lion!"

The Lion flashed his bashful grin as he angled a glance to his straw-stuffed friend. "Aren't dey somethin'?"

Two groups were formed from the wreckage of the legion's first Jinxland conflict. The Scarecrow was put in charge of Ali, Shade, and Brawn as they carefully began investigating the quiet cottages.

The rest of the group did what they could to fix the extensive damage to the cottage. They also agreed to have Bo alternate with Biff on what became known as "cellar duty". As Biff was a light sleeper, Bo's time keeping watch on the fruit cellar entrance was only a few hours.

In that time, however, there was no sign of either Koup or Dorothy. On the ground, or in the skies.

Koup, however, would not be on his own for long.

* * *

 **Gotta throw in a couple of Author Notes here, just to clear up any possible confusion:**

 **\- "Googly-goo"…who is a legitimate character from** ** _The Scarecrow of Oz_** **…and "Goog L'Goo" are the same person. The age-swap setup(which is, of course, unique to this adaptation) compels the wealthy…and quite wicked…courtier to re-invent himself under a name similar to his old one.**

 **For the purposes of this story, Pon still calls him Googly-goo in a justifiably derogatory fashion. Seeing as how that rich jerk is not a very nice person to begin with.**

 **\- Also, if the Lion's dialogue looks peculiar, bear in mind that he's being written in a manner reflecting the way Bert Lahr performed the character in the original 1939 film.**


	4. IV: The Tricks Of The Trade

**IV: The Tricks Of The Trade**

Oscar Diggs was not used to seeing the royal palace's throne room look so formal compared to the "presentation chamber" that had been constructed back when he was the ruler of Oz. Gone were the fire-generating plumes and the projection area, and in its place was a lovely-looking, golden throne with comfy red cushions. The throne was made a permanent fixture of the room, so it could not be naturally moved. Jellia had explained to him that the reconstruction was partially due to the old design being ruined during the temporary rule of the usurper called Ugu. She also spoke of the situation itself, and how it was resolved, smartly replacing all mentions of Dorothy's involvement with that of the identity of the patchwork girl she used to be.

This, however, confused Oscar. "So…there were _two_ patchwork girls?"

"Both with the same name, yes." Jellia replied. "One was made in the image of Dorothy Gale, and that one inspired Margolotte and Doctor Pipt to make one of their own."

Betsy Bobbin was with Oscar and Jellia as well, still wearing her sweet-looking yellow winkie dress. She looked to the former illusionist of the Bailum & Barney Circus, gesturing to the throne. "So y' might as well have a seat there, your highness. You're in charge for th' time bein', aft'r all."

Oscar sighed. "I'm so used to being behind a machine. Behind a _curtain._ "

"Time to show the _man_ behind the curtain now, Oscar." Jellia responded, smiling. "The people of Oz need an actual _face_ to guide them while Ozma is away."

Oscar, however, was deep in thought as he gazed upon the unoccupied throne seat. "Hmmm…maybe there _can_ be a more effective way to present myself. _Without_ the smoke-and-mirrors act."

Betsy rolled her eyes. "Now wait a minute, your highness." She wagged a finger to the old man in emphasis. "Rememb'r what Glinda said? No showin' off your magic too much."

"What's the use of having magic if I can't show how _gr-r-r-r-reat_ and powerful I've become in my absence?" Oscar countered, rolling the 'r' in his flamboyant delivery. "I'll bet you anything that there are still plenty of people in Oz who know me to be who I was, after all! Why should I disappoint them when they see some…some silly old man sitting in a chair?"

"Not everyone appreciated confronting someone other than a flesh-and-blood _person,_ your majesty." Jellia reminded. "And as I remember it, you gave more than one visitor a terrible fright with that head."

"Oh, _come on,_ Jellia. My temporary return to the throne is just that. _Temporary!_ " Oscar countered, stepping beside the throne with anxious steps. "Now that I've learned a few hundred _new_ tricks, it's only fair for me to _flaunt_ them a little, don't you think? If only to show that I really _have_ become a great and powerful wizard!"

 _Step forward, my friends! Come one! Come all!  
_ _This sneaky old wizard's got it made!  
_ _Even though I used to be a ruler in a stall,  
_ _never downplay the tricks of the trade!_

 _Every leader's got 'em, kids! Rule, with style!  
_ _Panache' that makes our creed flam-boy-aaant!  
_ _That special something to linger on their minds for awhile  
_ _like a princess charmed by one's gallivant!_

Oscar moved towards Betsy now as he continued his lively lyrics…

 _Step forward, my friends! Come one! Come all!  
_ _This sneaky old wizard's got it made!  
_ _Even though I used to be a ruler in a stall,  
_ _never downplay the tricks of the trade!_

 _With me, it was a large green head, and that voice  
_ _which sent a proper chill down your spine!_

As Betsy looked upon the old man, she saw him raise a pair of glowing hands, the palms poised towards the now confused Oklahoma girl...

 _But now, I've come upon an avatar, by choice!  
_ _By my power, let's show them that you're MINE!_

Two large, bright, and sparkling motes of light left Oscar's hands and harmlessly struck Betsy, who found herself floating where she stood. Gasping from the surge of pleasant warmth now coursing through her, she felt a tingling all over her skin. The glow wrought upon Betsy through Oscar's magic was far too bright for Jellia to see, but she did notice sparkles of different colors shooting forth from the glow.

When the glow began to fade, Jellia saw that Betsy's hair now had a familiar fiery glow to it, and her skin also had the familiar glittery appearance she once wore for a certain performance in the Winkie Country that had effectively announced the return of the Wizard to the people of Oz. Betsy's glittery, diamond-patterned appearance…the "Queen of Diamonds", as Oscar called it…had returned!

Looking down upon herself, Betsy gasped with wide-eyed glee. She remembered _loving_ this appearance…which had been made for her by a winkie "makeup woman" fluent in magic…and she was overjoyed at the thought of representing the Wizard using this glittery guise! Oscar couldn't help but giggle, in his own merry glee, seeing Betsy's giddy reaction to this.

Betsy felt light as a feather as she danced and spun around Oscar, bursting forth a spirited verse of her own, trailing streams of colored glitter in her wake…

 _Step forward, people of Oz! Come one! Come all!  
_ _I am the Wiz'rd's diamond-studded aide!  
_ _It shouldn't really matt'r if he's great or he's small…_

Oscar quickly conjured a much more lifelike version of the disembodied, emerald-colored head he once used as an illusion above him using his magic, its booming voice speaking Betsy's final verse along with her…

 _…never downplay the tricks of the trade!_

Jellia beamed as she looked upon Betsy's radically colorful makeover. The glittery, skin-tight leotard-like outfit was back, as was the white ruff around her neck. Ballet-like shoes were on her feet, as well, and the glitter concentrations upon her skin and her outfit were shaped into diamonds large and small. The colors alternated the five prominent colors of the land…emerald green, blue, purple, red, and yellow…although Jellia now picked up on that which made her current look differ from her previous appearance as the Queen of Diamonds.

The skin of her glitter-covered face was dominantly yellow, with a blue and a red diamond shape on each cheek. As before, Betsy's skin maintained the texture of normal human skin despite its radical appearance.

"Well, I have to hand it to you, Oscar…" Jellia mused, her eyes going to the throne, which she knew the wizard was now hiding behind. "…you sure know how to show off."

Jellia had to lurch back in her surprise when the large, disembodied head quickly came down close to the head maid, visibly startling her. " _IS THAT YOUR WAY OF SAYING…'YOU APPROVE'?_ "

The head maid sighed, her hands going to her waist as she spoke. "Assuming you can find a less obvious hiding place."

Oscar frowned as he stepped out from behind the seat of nobility. His mouth did not move as the head above him boomed. "PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE THRONE!"

The smirk on Jellia's face lingered in the next silent moment, and her hands were still on her waist.

Oscar then began to laugh. His mouth was closed at first, but when Betsy joined in with a merry giggle of her own, they both laughed aloud. Jellia also joined in the merry moment.

"Tricks of the trade indeed, your majesty." Jellia mused as they continued to laugh.

"SIR!"

The snap of a pair of boots turned the heads of the trio towards the source of the militant voice, their laughter cut short in their mutual surprise.

"Ah, Private Omby." Jellia eased herself upon recognizing the emerald-colored uniform of the royal palace's principal guard. She turned her head back to Oscar. "You remember Private Omby Amby, don't you, your majesty?"

Oscar frowned at first, but he remembered in the next moment. He was particularly hurt by the memory of his last duty, which was to tell the soldier that he was initially uninterested in the audience Dorothy Gale and her friends requested upon their first visit to the city's royal palace, ordering the soldier to refuse and ignore them. Unfortunately, their sorrow tugged at Omby's heartstrings significantly, and the green-whiskered soldier allowed them in despite Oscar's initial wishes.

"Yes! Yes! Good to see you again, old friend!" Oscar stepped a little closer to the palace's principal guardian, who was armed with a rifle that had a corked barrel. "Are we to have audiences today?"

"In abundance, your majesty." Omby reported. "In fact, there is a line of them awaiting you outside, and many of them are individuals of considerable importance."

Jellia's eyes widened. "In _abundance?_ " She hurried past Omby to look outside as Oscar turned back to Betsy.

"I'll need your help, Betsy. Bring them in one at a time. Make a nice show of it, if you can!" Oscar instructed. With a nod of recognition, Betsy…who trailed glitter streams as she moved…headed for the throne room's front door as the Wizard of Oz finally settled into the throne room seat.

He also quietly intoned a spell which allowed him to see through Betsy's eyes, getting an idea as to how big this 'abundance' would be.

Betsy opened the door a crack, and saw that Jellia was hurrying towards them. Behind her was, indeed, a large line of various citizens of Oz. Munchkins, gillikins, winkies, even animals. She also saw a certain tin woman…an empress…waiting patiently on the line. This excited Betsy, for she could now finally show off how she looked as the Queen of Diamonds!

The glittering girl stepped away from the doors before Jellia pushed them open and hurried over to Oscar. "The line stretches all the way to the bottom of the stairs outside, your majesty! I've got to get food and drink prepared for them all!"

As Oscar watched the now hyperactive head maid hurry away to the palace's kitchen, he had to smile. This is the frenetic head maid she remembered from his previous reign as the ruler of Oz. When she had started working at the palace, she wasn't the admirably headstrong leader she had grown to be, and he remembered the day he gave the gillikin woman the honor of tending to the royal palace within days of the completion of the Emerald City itself.

With a gesture to Betsy, the glittery girl charged at the doors and burst right through them, rolling forward on the ground and then presenting herself to the individual at the front of the line with a grand, balletic flourish.

 _Greetin's, friends! Follow me in!  
_ _The Wiz'rd of Oz awaits within!_

Upon seeing the gillikin man and woman through Betsy's eyes, Oscar chose to remain in the throne room seat as Betsy led them both in. The gillikin man seemed to be waving away the illusionary glitter streams going by him as Betsy moved, thinking the stream might get in his eyes.

Naturally, their initial inquiry was for Oscar's guests to wonder what had happened to Ozma, and Oscar consistently explained it thusly. "Alas, the almighty Ozma of Oz is away on a most important diplomatic function. She has personally entrusted the administration of the land to me in her absence. Upon her return, she will be back in this very seat, rest assured!"

"If I may say so, great Oz, many of us have missed you." The smiling, middle-aged woman admitted. "I, for one, am glad we don't have to confront that horrible green head this time!"

"Yes, well…there was much of how I was in those days that I…regretted in being the ruler of Oz, but…contrary to my days of hiding behind a machine, you should be seeing a lot more of that 'man behind the curtain' while I'm here." Oscar assured. "Now…how might I help you today?"

"My wife and I are in dispute, great Oz." The purple-clothed gillikin man began. "We had hoped that the storks of Mo would send us a boy, but…our bundle of joy turned out to be a girl. We were hoping to appeal to Ozma on this, seeing as how we were hoping to raise someone to help us around the house when we…"

Oscar's eyes widened in surprise as he interjected. "You're not about to suggest an alteration of the child's _gender,_ are you?"

"Well…"

His frowning wife nudged him, hard, with an elbow, forcing the man to wince. "Oh, just come out with it, Ronald! You clearly wanted a boy!" The woman turned her head to the interim ruler of Oz. "Apparently, his mind draws a blank when it comes to thinking of examples of females who have made their mark on history."

"Honestly, Ronald! I'm _shocked!_ " Oscar remarked.

"So am I!" A frowning Betsy added, her hands on her hips.

"Why, there have been _plenty_ of females in the history of this entire _world_ who have established themselves as movers and shakers. Even here in Oz!" Oscar explained. "One need only look no further, for one thing, at Ozma herself! Is she not female?"

"Well, begging your pardon, your highness…Ozma is a _fairy_ girl." Ronald reasoned.

"But a girl nevertheless, yes?" Oscar countered. "But, if you _must_ have a more _human_ example…there is the case of one Susan Brownell Anthony, from the world I was born in! A steadfast Massachusetts woman who distinguished herself as a prominent voice not only for the rights of other women to have a say in the establishment of american leaders, but in the ever-noble struggle against the injustice of _slavery_ in the lands beyond these nonestic isles! As I understand it, Miss Anthony's resolve is even due to become a Constitutional amendment…these being the established laws of our american lands, of course…and if you ask me, I see no reason for that amendment to be denied."

"And then there's that girl who killed those witches!" The gillikin woman added.

"Uh…begging your pardon, my dear, those were acts of pure circumstance rather than deliberate murder." Oscar quickly corrected. "Despite what you may have heard from those gossip-savvy munchkins, it was a ferocious tornado that uprooted Dorothy Gale's home, and circumstantial gravity that sent this house down upon the thankfully-deceased Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda's Great Book of Records also confirmed to me that Dorothy is not so much responsible for destroying the Wicked Witch of the West than she is for putting out a fire…which, I might add, the witch quite willfully conjured upon the arm of the Scarecrow…with a bucket of water, which happened to be nearby. I might also add that Dorothy had no prior knowledge of that murderous, green-skinned old crone's fatal water allergy."

"So…in putting out the fire, she also hit the witch with that water?" Ronald asked.

"Precisely! Which would make the _witch_ more responsible for her own death for starting that fire in the first place, wouldn't it?" Oscar confirmed. "But to return to the reason you're both here? Being male or female, despite what _anyone_ may tell you, is _never_ an excuse to judge one's capabilities. It is always in the way the child is _raised._ That, my friends, is _your_ responsibility. In raising your child, you both must always remember that a female is just as capable of performing the physical rigors of a chore, extreme or otherwise, around a household…and anywhere else, for that matter…as a male."

"An' th' male should always lend a hand where needed." Betsy added. "Ev'ry time."

"Right you are, Betsy." Oscar punctuated.

Ronald thought on these words as they were spoken. Having known of the great wisdom as well as the great power of the Wizard of Oz, he could not so easily deny such words as mad ramblings. The words did, after all, make sense to him.

The gillikin man smiled. "Thank you, great Oz. I…I see your point. We'll see that our little Nell grows up to be just as active and as…"

"Let's just see how she feels as she matures, dear." Ron's wife interjected. She turned to the Wizard. "I should think the child's own wants should be considered as she grows up, right?"

"Indeed, my dear." Oscar replied. "The raising of a child should always be a two-way street, after all. So long as it is all tempered not only by wisdom, but by genuine love, as well."

After giving their farewells, the gillikin couple walked away satisfied by what they had heard. Both Oscar and Betsy could hear the wife continuing to speak to Ronald as they walked out of the palace.

"I…hope y' didn't mind my sayin' anythin' there." Betsy plaintively remarked. "If you'd rath'r I kept quiet…"

" _Nonsense,_ Betsy! Your words were as right as rain." Oscar interjected, placing a hand on Betsy's glittering shoulder. "I _knew_ you were a wise choice for an advisor! Besides…I could also do with a bit of reassuring myself. How'd I do? Do you think I should have used the head instead?"

"Well…maybe if Ronald comes back, an' he hasn't learn'd anythin'." Betsy responded. "I think y' did jus' fine, Mist'r Diggs! Or…should I call you 'great Oz'?"

Oscar giggled. "Only when we have guests, my dear. Speaking of which…let's move on to our next visitation."

"Comin' right up!" Betsy then somersaulted her way back to the throne room entrance, bursting through to address the next individual on the line.

 _Greetin's, friends! Follow me in!  
_ _The Wiz'rd of Oz awaits within!_ _  
_

Oscar found himself face to face with the bearded, frumpy-faced munchkin called Unc Nunkie. He had a bottle of what looked to be a powdery substance in his hands. Standing next to him was Ojo, the munchkin boy who was made the leader of the Lollipop Guild.

"Well! Judging by your look, young man, I would say I'm in the honorific presence of a member of the Lollipop Guild!" Oscar began, back in his throne seat. "How can I help you today?"

"Actually, great Oz…I'm here to help my uncle here." He indicated Unc. "He only speaks in single words. He wanted to ask if he could borrow the sawhorse he gave to the princess Ozma for a couple of days."

"The Sawhorse?" Oscar then remembered. "Ah yes…the golden-footed wooden steed that pulls Ozma's red wagon! Say…how _did_ that frightfully fast filly come into existence?"

"Chores." Unc Nunkie growled.

"Which means that Unc Nunkie created him to help him with his farming chores." Ojo explained. "Just a plain old sawhorse that he brought to life with a magic powder he picked up from Doctor Pipt. He had been improving upon his first design to the point where he resembled one of the horses of a different color. A gold miner among the munchkins provided him with the gold-shaping necessary to make his four golden shoes. Unc loaned him to Dorothy and her friends for a rescue mission, but the Sawhorse had asked Unc if he could stay with Ozma, who had wanted him to pull her red wagon since she didn't like the idea of using a live horse. Unc only agreed on one condition."

"Need." Nunkie growled again.

"Which is to say, whenever Unc Nunkie needed him, and Ozma didn't, the Sawhorse would help him with a chore he needed to do." Ojo elaborated. "Ozma even agreed to this, and that's why we're here, great Oz."

"Ahhh, I see, I see." Oscar nodded as he spoke. "Well…I'm afraid your speedy Sawhorse took Ozma and her delegation on a diplomatic mission. They haven't returned yet, but rest assured that once they do, I will inform her royal highness of Unc's need the moment she returns."

Ojo turned to his uncle and shrugged. "Looks like we'll have to wait, Unc."

He frowned to Ojo as the munchkin boy spoke, and then he turned to Oscar. "Soon?"

The interim ruler shrugged, smiling. "I should hope so!"

Unc sighed in a somewhat unsatisfactory fashion. "Fine." He huffed, lowering his head.

Ojo gently placed a hand on his grumpy uncle's shoulder. "You go on outside. I'll be right with you."

"Right." Unc then moved back towards the entrance doors.

Ojo turned back to Oscar. "Please…don't mind ol' Unc. He's not one to carry a grudge. I know he's upset now, but he'll come out of it."

"Perhaps there's something I can do for him?" Oscar offered. "I've…learned a few powerful tricks, you know."

"Oh, no, great Oz. When it comes to his chores, Unc is most insistent on doing them on his own." Ojo answered. "Besides…he needs to work on being patient with people."

With a respectful bow, Ojo went to join his Uncle outside. Betsy then went back out the doors, in her vibrant and energetic manner, to bring the next individuals on the line in for their audience with the interim ruler.

 _Greetin's, friend! Follow me in!  
_ _The Wiz'rd of Oz awaits within!_

With a full head of red and white hair in a peppermint-like, twisting swirl, the Cookie Cook called Cayke…who, as always, had her gold-lined magic dishpan with her…confronted Oscar, although she had hoped to see Ozma in the chair. She nevertheless gave her dishpan a flip when she spotted the glittery Oklahoma girl, and the enchanted dishpan sent a warm, soft and delicious chocolate chip cookie flipping towards Betsy, who caught it and found the provided cookie to be the best she had ever tasted.

Cayke's issue, however, was that of pre-planned pastry offerings for Ozma's forthcoming birthday party.

Once again, Oscar had to give his requisite apologies, and assurances that the fairy princess would return, although both he and Betsy did give Cayke their own requests for pastries, which the Cookie Cook made a note of. After assuring she would grant their requests, she left the throne room with a cordial bow.

She also flipped a second cookie to Betsy, giggling at the visible eagerness of the Queen of Diamonds for another one.

Oscar feigned a look of impatience, to which Betsy shrugged with a sheepish grin before hurrying out to bring the next visitors in.

 _Greetin's, friends! Follow me in!  
_ _The Wiz'rd of Oz awaits within!_

The next individuals Betsy brought in were another pair of munchkins…but these residents of Munchkinland were hardly the ordinary sort. Dressed, as always, in his clean and fresh green outfit, Boq matched pace with a more mature-looking Jinjur as they followed Betsy into the throne room. When they stopped, smiles on both of their faces, they bowed as one.

"Greetings and salutations, great and powerful Oz!" Boq began. "Although…I cannot help but feel a bit _embarrassed_. We had made our visit in hopes of speaking with Dorothy Gale and the Scarecrow on a matter of great importance to Jinjur and I."

"Hmmm…this seems to be turning into a bit of a common thread, Betsy." Oscar mused to his glittery advisor, who giggled a bit over this observation. The Wizard turned his head back to the munchkin couple, regarding Jinjur in particular. "I…hope you'll pardon me for saying so, my dear munchkin, but…if you are who I believe you to be, well…it would seem you look a bit…"

"Older?" Jinjur amusedly interjected. "Well…it was a certain mutual friend from Kansas who convinced me that I should, well, grow up." She looked to Boq. "I…have a lot of time being stubborn and selfish to make up for, and I figured _this_ silly, crazy munchkin could help me out with that."

Boq blushed a bright red, smiling meekly, over this admission.

"But I'm actually glad you're here, sir." Jinjur continued. She then stepped a little closer to the old man. "I wanted to take this moment to personally apologize to you. In your absence, I…said some unpleasant things about you, and the way you ruled the land of Oz. In so doing, I made a dreadful mistake which temporarily cost your successor, the Scarecrow, his control over Oz. I…did help set things right, but…well…"

Oscar gently raised a hand to interrupt the beautiful munchkin woman's speech. "If anyone is to express shame and regret for the way the Wizard of Oz used to rule the land, it must be me, Jinjur. As you can see, I, too, am making up for being so reclusive in my rule. In fact, you could say that I was just as cowardly as that lion. I will openly confess to you, my dear, that I was indeed quite fearful of reprisal by those terrible witch-sisters who had terrorized two of our lands for so long. I am just as regretful not only for sending a young girl who just wanted to get back home to do a most horrible deed, but also for my failure to bring her home myself. This is part of the reason I am personally presenting myself here in this throne room chair, saving that most intimidating green head for those who I feel deserve to be intimidated. Although I will assure that my rule here is a temporary one until the occasion of Ozma's return. I hope, in the time in which I am to remain here, to be a much better man than the cowardly old humbug I used to be, Jinjur."

Jinjur went quiet, stunned by the words of a man she once held a considerable degree of contempt for. When this quiet moment passed, she smiled. "Well, I…I think…I think you're definitely taking a step in the right direction, great Oz."

Oscar nodded, smiling. "For the record, Jinjur, I do very much accept your apology. I hope, in time, you can come to accept mine."

Jinjur shrugged, smiling. "I don't see why I couldn't do that, sir, seeing as I'm just as silly and as crazy a munchkin as our charismatic little mayor here." She of course gestured to Boq as she spoke these words.

"Invitations will be sent realm-wide. You and young Betsy here will be among the recipients, of course." Boq reminded. "Although we would still very much like to speak with Dorothy and the Scarecrow."

"I assure you that both will be informed of your want for an audience." Oscar assured. "On this, I promise."

"Same here, your honor!" Betsy added, smiling.

Boq and Jinjur offered their thanks and their farewells before leaving the throne room. Betsy then turned to Oscar. "I wond'r if I should go out there an' tell 'em about Ozma not bein' here? Might shorten th' line some."

"I think that might be best, Betsy." Oscar replied. "As much as I would not mind addressing all of their concerns, I might have to put them all on hold so I can confront Ozma's picture and find out what's happening with that diplomatic mission."

"I think I'll do that aft'r th' next woman on line…or should I say, th' next _tin_ woman." Betsy noted.

"Ahh…the Empress. Yes, of course. Good thinking, Queen of Diamonds!" Oscar settled back into the throne room seat. "Off you go, then!"

After a nod, Betsy hurried over to open the doors once again…

…and she discovered that the only one standing there waiting for her reappearance was Empress Nimmie herself, who smiled upon spotting the glittery young girl.

"Judging by Nick's description, I'm guessing you're someone I have been wanting to meet." Nimmie stepped over to the Oklahoma girl, who bowed low in the presence of the Empress. "The Queen of Diamonds, at long last. I appreciate your humble show of respect to an Empress, my dear. You may rise."

"Um…my Empress…if I may…" She looked behind the tin monarch. "…what happen'd t' ev'ryone behind you?"

Nimmie smiled. "I made a formal announcement regarding the absence of Ozma and her entourage. Some of them left, and I asked those who remained about their manner of business, assessing as to whether or not it could wait. As none of the matters were of particular urgency, they agreed to return at another time."

"Oh? But…th' Wiz'rd was doin' so well in there." Betsy lamented.

"I think finding out what happened to that diplomatic mission is a bit more important, don't you think?" Nimmie gently placed a tin hand on Betsy's glittery shoulder. "Besides…I actually came here to ask about _you,_ Betsy. I'd like to have you put a circus together somewhere in the Winkie Country. I'll provide you with whatever help you may ask for."

Betsy's eyes widened. "Really? Um…sure, my…my Empress…" She looked a little flustered now. "I can look into doin' that…but, well…"

"Oh, after Ozma's entourage returns, of course!" Nimmie smiled. She then looked over Betsy's glittery form. "My goodness, you look _wonderful._ The words Nicholas used quite simply did not do you justice, Betsy. I imagine we have our interim ruler to thank for it?"

Betsy nodded. "He's still waitin' for us inside, my Empress."

Nimmie giggled. "Very well." Placing an arm around Betsy, they went into the throne room and approached Oscar. The new Empress of the winkies explained what she had done to disperse the remaining line of people, and why.

"Seems you read my mind, good Empress." Oscar remarked, smiling. "I say we make the most of this opportunity and head on up to Ozma's boudoir. We have a Magic Picture to consult!"

The trio ascended to the palace's second level, accessing the lovely boudoir of the princess of Oz with the aid of Jellia Jamb, who then resumed her duties. As much as she wanted to join them, Jellia felt assured that she would find out from Oscar later.

Once the interim ruler of Oz, the Queen of Diamonds, and the Empress of the winkies stood before the tranquil meadow surrounded by the radium frame, Oscar cleared his throat and spoke in a strong and commanding voice. " _By the command of the great and powerful wizard of Oz, I beseech you, Magic Picture, to show us the princess Ozma!_ "

While the image of the tranquil meadow blurred out of focus, and the images had become a cloudy white, no images sharpened into focus. After a moment, the tranquil meadow…animated through the picture's enchantment…returned.

Oscar frowned in his confusion. "I was under the impression that this picture was infallible! We _must_ be able to see Ozma!"

"Unless something happened to her." Nimmie warily noted.

The Wizard turned his head to the tin woman with a sense of dread. "I certainly hope not." He turned his head back to the picture. " _By the command of the great and powerful…_ "

"Uh…Mist'r Diggs, I don't think y' have t' keep sayin' all that." Betsy interjected, smiling. "Jus' ask th' Magic Picture t' show you what y' wanna see. I don't think it matt'rs who it is that's askin' for it."

"Heh…Glinda did warn me not to show off too much." He mused to his glitter-skinned advisor. He then turned back to the picture, clearing his throat again. "Magic Picture…show us Dorothy Gale."

Again, the picture blurred out of focus. Oscar felt sure they would get an image this time.

But the tranquil meadow returned!

Oscar blinked, frowning in confusion. "Is this thing _broken?_ Perhaps someone is using a counteractive spell against it?"

"Mist'r Diggs…I'm gettin' a lil' scared." Betsy fearfully remarked. "What if somethin' happen'd t' _all_ of 'em?"

A loud knocking interrupted the moment, and they could hear Jellia's voice on the other side of the door as she knocked in rapid, heavy blows. "Please open up! You have to hear what I've learned! May I _please_ come in? This is urgent!"

Whispering a word of magic, and making a gesture with his fingers, the door opened on its own, and Jellia hurried in. "Your highness…something has happened to Jinxland! Someone arrived at the royal palace to tell you about it, but you weren't downstairs! The entire province…even the mountain range on the other side of the gorge…there's a round, silver barrier covering it!"

The eyes of Betsy, Oscar, and Nimmie widened. The Wizard then turned back to the radium-framed, animated meadow. "Magic Picture…show us an outer view of Jinxland at _once!_ "

The image quickly blurred out of focus…only this time, it sharpened to show an image _other_ than the meadow. The four occupants of the boudoir's interior paid witness to the large, solid barrier that now completely concealed the mountain range surrounding the Jinxland territory. It was as if someone had dropped a large silver marble down upon the area, crushing everything beneath it. There was no debris, and no manner of crushed rock beneath it, however, so Oscar concluded that it was definitely some kind of magically-conjured outer shield.

But was there any life within it? Oscar couldn't help but feel a sense of dread upon Betsy's observation. What in the world was going on, he thought?

"Magic Picture…" A thought occurred to the old man. "…sh…show me the Sawhorse."

The eyes of all observing the image that came into focus widened in their mutual shock.

Although the Sawhorse did not present the image of having been turned to stone, the steed was nevertheless motionless, and there was no movement whatsoever from the magically-animated creature. They saw that its eye marks had disappeared, and its resemblances to a horse had been somehow removed. It literally looked like a lifeless sawhorse now, albeit with the golden shoes still on its legs.

"Dear me…" Oscar spoke quietly in making the observation he had hoped was very wrong. "…has the Sawhorse been… _disenchanted?_ "

"The Red Wagon is still there, at least." Nimmie observed, seeing the untouched vehicle.

"He can be re-enchanted…" Betsy looked to the Wizard with genuine concern. "…can't he?"

Oscar lowered his head, deep in thought. Even as everyone else turned to him. He was the ruler of Oz, after all, and they looked to him for guidance. He couldn't falter. He also had to maintain the hope that his friends were not dead, but merely trapped within the bubble. It was entirely possible that this barrier was what was preventing the Magic Picture from breaching its outer shell.

When Oscar raised his head back up, he looked to the lingering image of the lifeless sawhorse. "That's enough for now, Magic Picture."

Upon these words, the image returned to that of the tranquil meadow.

The Wizard of Oz then turned to his friends. "They're still alive. I _know_ it. They _must_ be!" He stepped away from the picture, and his three friends followed him as they awaited his next line of thinking. "Before Ozma left, she tasked me with investigating matters relating to that message the princess Gloria left for us. We're to look into the situation in the lands of Regos, Coregos, and Pingaree for clues. Mombi was also mentioned."

"I think we should deal with her first, Mist'r Diggs." Betsy advised.

"I agree." Nimmie added.

"And that's exactly what we're going to do." Oscar then turned to Betsy. "Assuming, of course, that _you_ don't mind confronting that wicked woman."

Nimmie frowned at this. "Why her?"

"I assure you, Empress. It is not my intention to place our young winkie here in any unobserved danger." Oscar assured. "In fact, if you would remain with me here in the boudoir while I send out Betsy, you'll find what I have in mind to be a most entertaining manner of apprehension."

Betsy solemnly nodded. "I'll go, Mist'r Diggs. I think I know what y' have in mind."

Nimmie shook her head, smiling. "With Nicholas and I being away from the throne for all these long periods, you'd think Prime Minister Gruf was the real Emperor."

Oscar nodded in his comprehension of this. "I'll understand if you would rather return to the Winkie Coun…"

"Oh no, Mister Diggs." Nimmie interjected. "Whatever it is you have in mind, I don't want to miss it."

* * *

Striking the surface of the silvery dome above him felt like hitting a brick wall. No sound could be heard as the winged baboon called Koup collided with the barrier.

He knew, of course, that this was a possibility before making the attempt.

He just flew a bit too fast towards it.

Momentarily senseless, he regained control quickly. Quite luckily, too, seeing as how he had been drifting towards a large tree. He was able to veer to the right just as he was to hit it.

He was able to keep a tight grip on the bag he had grabbed when Rouse tossed it to him, as well. Perching himself briefly on the branch of a high tree, Koup decided to tie the top of the burlap bag closed. He didn't know anything about the sorcerous items within it, and he didn't want to risk destroying himself trying to figure out how they were used.

But they did feel like a group of various-sized pearls and rocks, though. One of them even felt like a gem.

As he looked down at the bag he was tying shut, however, he caught sight of a furry creature staring up at him from the ground below. In some respects, this curious beast resembled Koup, given the simian face and the long, thin tail.

Seeing as how this was a simian creature, Koup flashed a baboon's toothy grin, and then gestured for this potential new friend to join him in the treetops.

But the brown-furred creature just stayed where it was, still staring up at him.

Koup tilted his head to the side curiously. Was this creature not a monkey, like he was, the winged baboon thought? Or had he come upon one who did not even know how to climb? Perhaps he was a parent-less stray?

As he had been taught by his companions of the Legion to always be helpful, Koup dropped down, his strong wings carefully slowing his descent. When he landed, he touched down right in front of the monkey, who had a curiously human head of pageboy-styled hair.

Koup again tilted his head to the side curiously. "Who _you_ be?"

"I…I'm Trot." The former California girl replied. "You're not with those witches, are you?"

"If ya mean dose bad witches in here? Noooo." Koup responded. "I be with de Courage Legion! Where you come from? Gugu Forest?"

Trot shook her head. "California. I…I don't know anything about any Courage Legion or any Gugu Forest. I'm not even a monkey. I'm a girl."

Koup recoiled at this, widening his eyes, puckering his lips and letting out an instinctive simian "Ooh-ooh!"

Trot lowered her head lamentedly. "It was those witches. They…they turned me into this. I feel so…" She looked down at her furry body, still astonished at what had happened to her. "…so _weird_."

"Ohh, but bein' monkey be not weird, Trot! _All_ human be monkey once! Loooong time ago." Koup explained, gently placing a hand on Trot's furry shoulder. "Even some human know how to climb tree, but monkey always _best_ at it. I be happy to teach you, young monkey."

"Who… _hoo…ooh-ooh…_ " Trot went quiet for a moment, stopping the barking of her instinctive monkey sounds. "…whoo _ooh_ …whoo…are you?"

"I be Koup!" The winged baboon replied, beating a fist against his chest with emphasis. "I be de most popular, and de most important member of de Legion of Courage, in de south forest of de Oz land. Not too far from here, but…" He indicated the silvery barrier mildly obscuring the skies above them. "…round wall be keepin' you an' me from it."

"Is that why the sky looks so strange?" Trot asked.

Koup nodded. "Just as dey make you monkey, witches make de wall in de sky." Such was the winged baboon's guess, seeing no other reason for the barrier to have materialized.

"But why?" Trot wondered aloud. "With all these mountains, no one can get out or get in here anyway."

"Unless dey have _deese?_ " Koup then spread his strong, bat-like wings out to the sides. "Who do dis be _smart,_ Trot. Dey take no chances."

Trot drooped her head and her shoulders. "So we're trapped here."

"But you not alone, Trot! You be havin' _me_ wit you!" Koup gripped the monkey's shoulders, speaking in a reassuring tone. "I be helpin' you too! Show you how to climb! To swing! To be monkey for time bein'. I promise, it be _fun!_ Den we find me bruddas an' seestas of de League."

"But I don't _want_ to be a monkey!" Trot whined.

"But you monkey now, no?" the winged simian reasoned. "Remember what Koup said. Be monkey _for time bein'._ You want to be human again? You must _help!_ Only way you help? Be monkey! Monkey not so bad! Even one wit' de round tummy." He indicated Trot's belly. "Let Koup show you. You tell Koup one _good_ t'ing…right now…about bein' monkey."

Trot looked down at herself, giving the admittedly sensible baboon the benefit of a doubt. "Well…um…the fur feels kinda nice…and I feel a little more warm. Like…like I'm in a bed on a cold night."

"Aaah! I ask for one? You give me _two_ good t'ings!" Koup responded. "Now you have _tail,_ too! Move it around a little. Dis be lesson one. Make tail twitch."

Trot's first instinct, looking behind her at the furry extension growing out from her posterior, was to clench her butt a little. This provoked the requested twitch at the base of her tail.

"Dere be de twitch!" Koup exclaimed. He then grasped Trot's head on both sides, slowly forcing her head forward, so that she could not see her tail. "Time for monkey-t'ink. You be concentratin' now, Trot. Concentrate along de back, down to de tail. Do _not_ look back at it."

Trot closed her eyes, hesitant as she was to 'monkey-think', as Koup called it. Although she tried to think about the tail as hard as she could, the tail did not move at all.

"I…I can't feel anything." Trot lamented, opening her eyes. "I can't feel it move."

"You can feel it though, yes?" Koup asked.

"I sure felt it when it was stepped on." Trot replied.

" _OOoooooh!_ Dat be _hurtin'!_ _Hate_ when dat 'appen." Koup remarked. "Does it still hurt?"

Although the throbbing was mild, she could still feel it. To her, it felt like the throbbing was at the base of her posterior, where her tail grew out. "A little, yeah."

"Hmmm, dat be 'elpful." Koup mused aloud, considering an idea. "Move de hurtin'. Concentrate again. Concentrate on de hurt. You be monkey! Do monkey-t'ink! Eeeease your mind dis time."

Trot took a deep breath, although she remained hesitant to accept what she had become, even though it was physically and inescapably evident.

Although she was able to concentrate on the throbbing, Trot only managed a more pronounced series of twitches.

The monkey's shoulders drooped along with her head. "It's no use…and I'm really trying here, Koup."

The winged baboon nodded. "You got de human on de mind. Maybe we try new lesson. You ever climb tree? Swing on branch?"

"Um…not really." Trot admitted, scratching an itch behind her larger, simian ear.

"Human crawl before walk? Monkey climb before swing." Koup observed. "Human tall, monkey small. Monkey have long arm, too. Make climb more easy. You try!" He gestured to a nearby tree. "I be watchin' you."

Trot did notice that she had to lift her arms up to be able to walk bipedally without dragging those limbs along the ground as she approached the tree Koup indicated. It didn't help that her legs were noticeably smaller in length than her arms, but she wondered if there was a trick to it all. Monkeys, after all, made climbing and swinging look quite easy, no matter how fat or how thin they were.

She looked at her new hands, with their longer fingers. The surfaces certainly looked a bit tougher than her human skin. Glancing at the outer bark of the tree she was tasked to climb, Trot became a little more curious as she placed those simian hands against the bark.

With a short leap, she made her first attempt to scale the tree.

To Trot's frustration, the attempt was unsuccessful.

Her determination grew with the next couple of attempts. For one thing, placing her hands upon the bark did not hurt at all! Trot just needed to reach the branch that, while she was on the ground, was out of her reach.

She figured a couple of quick grips and pulls would get her close enough to try a grab for the thick branch. With a deep breath, Trot once again launched herself at the tree, getting a leaping start…

…and her hands finally reached the branch! Instinctively, she swung, however, and her simian body went around and around until she was able to stop herself by planting her feet upon the branch, struggling to keep herself upright.

She found, however, that balancing herself on this branch was easier than she thought as she stood up on the branch, getting a good grasp on it with her transformed feet.

" _DERE_ YA GO! _AWOOOO-WOO-WOO-WOO-WOO!_ " Koup cried out in his exultation, pumping his fists in the air. "Can you get to de _top,_ now? Koup think so! Branch all around you, Trot! You be usin' dem to get to _dis_ tree's top now."

Koup flapped his way up to the treetop and then looked down, keeping his eyes on his promising student as Trot began figuring out a way to begin her next upward climb. _Branches all around you,_ Koup had said. Looking around the area, it was indeed evident that there were several trees around the one she was to reach the top of. She needed to figure out a path of some kind.

Leaping instinctively to a nearby branch, she did not expect the branch to crack and send her to the ground. Fortunately, she was not high enough to get significantly hurt, but the impact was painful.

A frustration took hold when she was back on her funny-looking feet. Trot then began screeching angrily, and in a manner far more simian than she expected. Bursting right back up to the first branch she had made it to, she instinctively began a momentum that had her swinging and leaping from branch to branch, going around the tree rather than straight up, and beginning a gradual ascent as she moved.

One branch she grasped, Trot swung once…twice… _thrice_ around before letting go, and she ascended to a branch that was very close to where a wide-eyed Koup waited. About half a foot more from her current position, and she would reach the top at long last!

But Trot had stopped a moment to grasp her head. Her eyes boggled. " _Woooh_ …ooh-ooh…muh… _mmmm_ mmy…"

"Hmmm." Koup tilted his head curiously. "Must be de _monkey_ in you comin' out. No worries! You still speak human! You in Oz, no? _All_ animal speak human!"

Closing her eyes, Trot puffed a couple of calming breaths. Once she looked a little more at ease, she opened her eyes and judged the distance. This time, a branch was above her that one good jump would allow her to grab…

…and grab it, she did, swinging once around and then letting go, her simian body heading right for Koup. Startled at the sight of Trot heading right for him, he lost his balance and dropped right down!

Trot was logically shocked at this. She never intended to knock Koup right off! She looked down worriedly from her position at the top of the tree.

But then, she heard a flapping noise rise up behind her. Turning around, she spotted a grinning winged baboon hovering in place, his bat wings flapping to keep him in a stationary position in mid-air.

"I…I'm sorry for knocking you off." Trot plaintively remarked, her head lowering in shame.

Koup, however, rose a single fist in his exultation. "Koup be _righ-tee-ous teacher!_ " He then landed on a branch near where a now smiling Trot was sitting. "Now dat you up here? You _practice._ You swing, you climb, you jump. Like ya do ta get 'ere! Dat was _righteous!_ " He raised a fist in emphasis.

"But…do we have time?"

"For now, little monkey?" Koup pointed to his new simian protégé. "We _make_ time. Koup need you get _use_ to monkey!"

Trot nodded. "It…it's kinda scary, but…I think I can get, um, used to it…"

"Not if ya jus' _sit_ dere!" Koup gestured to the trees ahead of her. "Time to _fly,_ as monkey do!"

And away she went. Leaping, swinging, and climbing around the trees in the area, as Koup observed. This continued for a little over an hour, and such was the nature of Trot's paths that they traversed a fair distance across the treetops and the tree branches throughout Jinxland.

The training stopped when Koup finally spotted a friendly face walking below. This one was the humanoid made entirely of tightly-stuffed straw. He looked curious as he entered a cottage that was near a high and sturdy tree branch where Koup and Trot were standing.

"Who was that?" Trot asked.

"Dat be a friend. Best friend of de Commanda-in-Chief." Koup replied. "You meet him?"

Trot nodded.

Koup similarly nodded in recognition. "We take break den."

The winged baboon then grabbed Trot and, with a capable grip, settled towards the cottage the Scarecrow had entered. They landed right in front of the open doorway the straw-stuffed royal advisor had passed through. Going through it, they found themselves in the cottage's living room, which was eerily devoid of life save for the requisite pieces of furniture, pictures, and bookshelves full of books.

They heard the Scarecrow's voice in the adjoining room. "Dear me…!"

As Koup checked the spines of the books in a bookcase, Trot curiously and quietly stepped into the next room, curious over the walking, talking Scarecrow Koup called a friend.

She was right behind him, but the sight of the young boy who had become a solid gray statue…with a frightened look on his face…stopped Trot in her tracks.

The Scarecrow's shoulders slumped, and his head lowered. He then turned around…

"AAAH!"

The stuffed visitor wildly lurched back upon spotting Trot, fully surprised. In stumbling back, he found himself against the stone boy. " _AAAH!_ "

Trot was also startled by the Scarecrow's reaction, although her reaction wasn't quite as vivid. Still, she had never seen a man-sized scarecrow do anything other than hang on a post in a farmer's field without moving a single limb.

She never saw a scarecrow that could actually _talk,_ either.

Until now, of course.

But if a witch could actually turn her into a monkey, she could believe that in this strange new land, a scarecrow could not only move, but speak as well.

"I…I'm sorry if I scared you." Trot plaintively remarked, an index finger at her wide simian lips.

Koup then moved next to Trot. Upon spotting the statue of the boy, his expression went serious. "Anudda victim. So young. De witches, dey 'ave no shame."

"Sadly true." The Scarecrow replied. "We'll have to move him to where all the others we found are."

"Trot an' I help ya wit dis." Koup remarked.

The Scarecrow now looked to the brown-furred monkey staring back at him curiously.

"Trot? Is that your name?" The straw-stuffed advisor asked, smiling as he stepped closer to her. "Do you live here in Jinxland, Trot?"

The monkey shook her head. "California. I'm trying to find a man named Bill. He got lost at sea. I got swallowed up by a whirlpool trying to find him. When I woke up, I was near that bad witch's big red place. I think that witch I was with said her name was Glinda."

The Scarecrow obviously looked very surprised at this…and since Koup knew Glinda, he also looked a bit startled.

" _Who_ told you Glinda was bad?" The Scarecrow asked, frowning in confusion.

"One of those nasty witches who was with Blinkie." Trot answered. "She was the one who found me."

"And…who be Blinkie?" Koup asked.

"She has an eyepatch. I think she's their leader." Trot replied. "She's working with a princess named Gloria. She's the one who asked me to use that stone that…" The monkey lowered her head. "…that…turned Glinda and those others to stone."

Koup looked a little more shocked at what he now heard. " _You_ be de one who make all de statues?"

"No! Just…just Glinda's group." Trot clarified, seeing Koup's horrified look. "She had a girl with two large flowers on her head, a shiny metal man with an axe, and a tiger with her."

"Dorothy told me something about her world." The Scarecrow rubbed at his burlap chin. "She mentioned having friends in a place called California, but…animals don't talk where Dorothy comes from."

"I wasn't always a monkey." Trot then revealed. "I was a girl. I asked that witch woman who found me to help me find Bill. She told me Gloria could help me, but Gloria asked me to use the stone on Glinda and her friends. The princess then gave me to the witches, and they started being mean to me. I…I couldn't think straight. I don't even remember anything that happened until I got away from them. That's when I found out what they did to me."

"Hmmm. So dey trick you, use you, and _abuse_ you." Koup frowned. " _Eeeevil_ witches. Don' like dem one bit."

"Glinda isn't a bad witch, is she?" Trot asked the Scarecrow.

Logically, the straw-stuffed advisor shook his head. "Otherwise, she wouldn't be the Good Witch of the South. You know now that Blinkie's witches lied to you, right?"

Trot's face went sullen as her furry posterior dropped to the floor, her arms hanging in front of her and her head drooped shamefully as tears began to form in her eyes. Her voice shook as she spoke. "I feel _terrible._ I…I just wanna find Bill. He…he's one of my only friends."

"We're gonna have to do something about those witches first, Trot." The Scarecrow reasoned. "Do you know what happened to the stone you used to petrify Glinda and the others?"

Trot shook her head, completely unaware of the fact that she had picked it up and swallowed it prior to her escape.

"Well…none of us have been turned to stone so far, so we have to assume they haven't found it yet." The Scarecrow surmised. He then placed a stuffed hand on the sullen monkey's brown-furred shoulder. "Trot…if we can somehow restore Glinda, I can _promise_ you she will change you back to the girl you're supposed to be. She'll even help you find Bill, too."

"She even help ya get back home." Koup added, placing a simian hand on Trot's other shoulder in consolation. "She be _very_ strong witch."

"That's right!" The Scarecrow smiled. "She helped someone else get back home once, too. A girl from Kansas named Dorothy Gale. She was with our group, in fact. You'd like her, Trot." He then looked to Koup. "Did you see her at all? During that fight, we sent her out to find you."

Koup lowered his simian head. "Dat be bad news. De witches have her. Did som'teeng strange to her. She follow dem away."

The Scarecrow's eyes closed distressfully. "Oh, _no_. If she's under their control…"

"Maybe we find out more about _deese._ " Koup indicated the bag full of stones he had tied to his rope belt. "Ask Pon about dem. Maybe dey 'elp."

The Scarecrow's eyes fell on Trot again. "Will _you_ help us too, Trot?"

Trot had no reason to distrust these individuals at this point no matter how unusual they looked. Koup had made it easier for her to understand what she had become, and the Scarecrow seemed quite nice in the short time she associated with him.

Trot finally nodded after her moment of silent consideration. "What's our next move?"

* * *

"'What's our next move'?" Gloria irritably mocked Blinkie's tone as they stood in the courtyard of the witch's home. The one-eyed witch had to remember that given Gloria's enchanted heart, she needed to expect harsh treatment from the once-benevolent young princess. "Isn't it obvious? I can't think about any further expansion without the Medusa Stone! Haven't you _found_ it yet?"

"I did attempt a magical survey of the whole of Jinxland, your highness, when we returned here." Blinkie responded. "If it was out in the open anywhere in the land, I would have found it. For whatever reason, it is not lying around anywhere in Jinxland at all. I have to assume that the monkey girl we used took it."

"And you haven't found the monkey yet, obviously." Gloria glared at the one-eyed witch in disappointment. "Blinkie, I don't care if you have to turn those other witches of yours into monkeys to find her. _I want that stone._ I certainly can't get it, can I? _I'm not a witch!_ So you ask me what our next move is? Poor choice of words! What is _YOUR_ next move?"

Blinkie glared back with her one good eye. She contrarily kept the tone of her voice civil. "I'll send my apprentices out to find her, your highness. She obviously can't go anywhere outside of Jinxland, and the hunt gives my witches a chance to practice what I've taught them."

"And _you?_ " Gloria quirked an eyebrow. "What part do _you_ play in this little hunt?"

The one-eyed witch smiled. "I wait here, of course. Besides…I need to tend to my new pet. If her majesty finds this disagreeable, I might remind her majesty what she herself has observed a short while ago. Unlike me, you are _not_ a witch, and you need our help. Especially since you so unwisely turned King Krewl to stone. I can't rely on Goog L'Goo anymore, either, seeing as how he lost his marbles, so to speak. Maybe you can run along and see to his big, bad bruises. He's been whining like a spoiled brat ever since we brought him back here."

Gloria's fists clenched very tightly in her visible anger. As much as she wished it were otherwise, the princess was indeed powerless without Blinkie's help. Gloria had to abide by the word of this cruel, but crafty one-eyed witch no matter how much she hated her.

Rather than growl a retort, the young princess simply stamped her way out of the courtyard where they had been talking.

Blinkie just shook her head amusedly, and moved to one of the doors of her many-sided home. Stepping into the room where she knew she had left her new pet, Blinkie saw the dog-eyed girl in the blue and white dress still visibly struggling against the urges her enchanted collar was assaulting her mind with. Dorothy was still on her hands and knees, but she continued to glare straight ahead, breathing labored breaths through her nose.

"Tut, tut, tut." Blinkie kept herself at a distance from the struggling Kansas girl as she quietly spoke her thoughts out of Dorothy's earshot. "Still 'fighting the good fight', are you? And I thought you were such a timid young thing. I figured the beast collar would be enough, but it seems quite clear that I will need to supplement its work on you, pet."

Blinkie stepped quietly over to Dorothy from behind. From a pocket of the one-eyed witch's robes, she drew what looked to be a raw tree branch which was about the size and the width of an index finger. This branch had a glossy appearance, as well, and with her free hand open and held to the other side of her, she began to wave the branch around in patterns above the struggling girl, almost like an orchestra conductor.

The wicked spellcaster then began to speak. " _With claws on paws to dig very deep…_ "

Although her eyes looked canine, she was able to see the reason the tips of her fingers suddenly felt numb, along with those of her toes. Black canine claws had painlessly appeared on the tips of each digit! Her hands looked a bit misshapen, too, and her eyes widened when she noticed that her hands were now padded.

Blinkie continued to trace patterns above Dorothy. " _…and a set of new legs to make a great leap…_ "

The front part of her feet suddenly, painlessly stretched forward and away from the rest of the heel as a flush of raw strength could be felt at her legs.

The one-eyed witch moved on to her next words, the branch tracing above her shocked subject. " _…and sensitive ears floppy and long…_ "

Dorothy's ears rang uncomfortably for a moment with the magical alteration of their sensitivity. They also felt very weird now as her face took on a fearful expression. Provoking her ear muscles, they definitely _felt_ larger now, and she did feel them flop around a little.

Blinkie mercilessly continued her enchantment. " _…and a blackened nose with a whiff so strong…_ "

Uncontrolled twitching at the changing girl's nose ensued as it blackened and assumed a moist, canine shape. A black line could be seen along the dent of her upper lip now, and patterns of small black spots formed at her upper lip as well.

" _...thicken a brown-blotched pelt snowy white …_ "

These words provoked an explosion of fur all over Dorothy's body, the abundance of hair straining the Kansas girl's blue and white dress. It was here that the Kansas girl's mental battle truly ended, realizing what was happening to her. Animal instincts flooded more easily to her mind now as the fur grew in. Canine whiskers also emerged from the dots on her upper lip.

" _…and grow a furry tail to wag left and right!_ "

Blinkie's wand traces aimed at Dorothy's posterior, the resultant growth lifting the back of the Kansas girl's skirt with the emergence of the wagging tail.

Blinkie's next waves of her wand were now above the Kansas girl's furry head. " _Embrace your collar and surrender to its fog, for you are my Dorothy. My sweet, loyal dog._ "

Any semblance of human thought had now receded completely in Dorothy's mind at this point. Her canine mind was now very dominant as she looked up curiously to Blinkie.

Her tail wagged as she eagerly awaited a command from the woman she recognized as her owner.

Smiling wickedly, the one-eyed witch pocketed the wand and moved to a cabinet. Producing a large pair of scissors, she began snipping apart Dorothy's dress, allowing her to show off the fullness of her now canine body's thick pelt of fur.

"Now follow along with me, Dorothy." Patting at her leg, her new dog responded accordingly, rising to all fours and padding along behind Blinkie.

As much as animals like the Hungry Tiger and the Cowardly Lion had the capacity to walk around on their hind legs as creatures of Oz, Dorothy could naturally do likewise. Her enchanted collar, however, had fused full animal behavior upon its helpless victim, and the anthropomorphic dog Dorothy had become was now bound to its humiliating rules.

Unless, of course, that wicked collar were to be removed… 


	5. V: Betsy In The Sky With Diamonds

**V: Betsy In The Sky With Diamonds**

Of the many individuals in the Gillikin Country, none were more notorious in their infamy as the old woman who, working out of a farmhouse, would cause so much trouble, known and otherwise. There was even a time in which she tried to establish herself as the Wicked Witch of the North, and her speciality was to use her magic to create various transformations.

Her name is Mombi. Some refer to her as Old Mombi, for the fact that she was indeed an old and most wicked witch. Perhaps not as cruel and monstrous as the Wicked Witch-sisters who ruled the east and the west lands of Oz, but then, hers was a more deceptive kind of evil.

This gillikin witch used to work in plain sight of her fellow gillikins under an alternate guise. One which looked far more pleasing to the eye compared to her naturally old appearance. In this guise, she worked under the name Millicent Thrombey. It was through this comparatively pleasant guise that she was able to discredit Locasta, the Good Witch of the North, to the point where the white-robed witch was stripped of her title, forcing the gillikins to have Glinda herself succeed her while Locasta lived in relative exile as Auntie Lo, a benevolent munchkin witch. She remained in this guise when Dorothy Gale first came to Oz, and it was during this time that Glinda was not only acknowledged as the Good Witch of the South, but of the North as well.

Only recently was Locasta able to clear her name and win her old title back. When it was discovered that Mombi had not only inflicted her wicked magic upon Dorothy Gale, but also the true heir to the throne of Oz, Glinda forced Mombi to drink a potion which eliminated the old crone's ability to cast spells. Any and all knowledge of verbal and somatic magic had been erased from her memory.

For two long years, Mombi had been attempting to think of a way around the ability to personally cast spells. It did not take long for the defeated gillikin witch to figure out another means of establishing herself as a potent and vengeful threat, and while Glinda had certainly seen to the complete sabotage of Mombi's spellcasting abilities, she still had many texts through which she could promote an entirely different kind of magic.

Potion-making.

Mombi had been particularly secretive in those two years, and she had recently been successful in sending a message to one of the recipients of her revenge. Through Mombi's potion work, she not only created another disguise…that of a maid working at the Emerald City's royal palace…but also a liquid which, when added to food and drink, would visibly increase the victim's weight.

The old crone knew it wasn't much of a statement, but it was a start.

It was to Mombi's disdain, however, that the de-powered gillikin witch learned that Dorothy's reaction to her weight gain was not as dramatic as Mombi had expected. In fact, it seemed like she didn't care at all.

A response like this compelled Mombi to contemplate another attempt. One far more crippling this time. The old crone wondered if she should turn her attention to the Scarecrow again. Perhaps disenchant him so that he would be nothing more than a silent, motionless scarecrow, no different from any other mundane scarecrow in the outside world.

Such a thing would require a contact potion. One that did not need to be imbibed. She could cast its content upon the Scarecrow somehow, and the deed would be done.

A wicked smile returned to the face of the gillikin witch as she contemplated this end.

"I know what you're doin'!" The young, girlish voice was behind her. "I'm gonna _tell_ on you!"

Assured that this witch's personal power…her ability to cast spells…was no longer evident, Betsy Bobbin felt a little more confident over the idea of the Wizard of Oz magically relocating the nimble Oklahoma girl right behind Mombi as she was deep in quiet self-contemplation. He had also restored Betsy's original appearance, as well, for the duration of her mission.

Doors. That was all Betsy needed to get out. Fortunately, the farmhouse within which Mombi lived was old and decrepit, with only a four-horned cow grazing in the fields. She knew one good kick to those doors would breach them, and she was easily able to blast herself through the necessary doors in her escape attempt.

Angrily, Mombi gave chase behind her as they moved from the farmhouse property to a forest of trees. Betsy could hear the witch's growls of frustration as she moved with heavy steps. " _Get back here, you little brat!_ " She roared. " _I'll teach you not to trespass on my farm!_ "

A bright flash of green, however, stopped Mombi in her tracks, a booming voice speaking at the very same instant. "NOT BEFORE I TEACH _YOU_ A LESSON, MOMBI THE POWERLESS!"

Entirely startled, Mombi looked to the source of the green glow above her…

…and saw a giant, disembodied green head frowning down at the gillikin witch! Although she had never seen the great green head of the Wizard of Oz during his reign, Mombi certainly heard descriptions of this head from those gillikins who _had_ seen him. Back then, she worried that this wizard, given the great power he was reputed to have, would see through her disguise as Millicent Thrombey quite easily, hence her preference to stay away.

But here the head was, glowering down at her in this very instant! So much for all the stories of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz being nothing more than a 'charlatan'!

"HOW _DARE_ YOU FATTEN DOROTHY GALE!" The head growled. "AND OVER SOMETHING AS PETTY AS REVENGE! YOU WERE WARNED NOT TO USE MAGIC, MOMBI! YOU MUST BE _PUNISHED!_ "

Standing nearby, Betsy quite amusedly watched the wicked gillikin witch drop to her knees, a visibly frightened expression on her face, before the giant, floating head. "Mercy! _Merrcy,_ great Oz!" Mombi whined. "I…I was contemplating the creation of a tincture to help with m-my farm work! Help crops grow faster!"

" _AT WHAT EXPENSE?_ " The head bellowed angrily. "YOU THINK THE GREAT AND POWERFUL WIZARD OF OZ DOES NOT KNOW OF YOUR PAST WICKEDNESS? I DO NOT THINK YOU ARE _CAPABLE_ OF FORGIVENESS! NO! YOU MUST BE _PUNISHED!_ "

"NO! NO! I beg you! Please!" Mombi screeched, dropping her head to the ground. Betsy couldn't help but giggle to herself as she watched. "I will do _anything_ to make amends!"

"THEN COME BEFORE THE GREAT AND POWERFUL WIZARD OF OZ AT _ONCE!_ YOU WILL BE GIVEN QUESTIONS, AND ONLY THE _TRUTH_ WILL SPARE YOU FROM YOUR PUNISHMENT!" The voice next offered loudly. "DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER FABRICATIONS, OLD CRONE, OR YOU WILL BE STRUCK DOWN WHERE YOU STAND!" Dark clouds suddenly formed above the head now, and a rumbling could be heard. "YOU HAVE _20 MINUTES_ TO COME BEFORE THE GREAT AND POWERFUL WIZARD OF OZ… _OR ELSE…!_ "

From these dark clouds, a loud bolt of powerful lightning crashed down right in front of the de-powered gillikin witch, who leaped away fearfully from the smoking impact point in the soil. Even Betsy was visibly intimidated by this.

As the clouds above cleared as quickly as they had formed, Betsy's eyes went back down to Mombi. The old crone was practically curled into a fetal ball, whimpering quite pathetically, as the green head continued to frown angrily upon her.

" _19 MINUTES, MOMBI!_ " The voice then roared.

With a scream of terror, Mombi scrambled away from the head…on her hands and knees…and then rose to her feet to hurry over to one of the taxis she had spotted rolling along one of the roads.

Betsy stepped out of her hiding place to watch the pathetic old crone stumble her way towards the taxi. She managed to get into the wagon, and its driver sent the green horse…one of the many horses of a different color...on a path towards the Emerald City.

The grinning Oklahoma girl curiously glanced up to the glowing green head, which was now scowling back at her. Betsy's grin melted seeing this scowl.

"WHAT ARE _YOU_ LOOKING AT, WHIPPERSNAPPER?" The head's voice boomed, forcing a gasp out of Betsy.

But then, the frowning green head gave a knowing wink to her before fading out of view.

Betsy couldn't help but smirk over this. Having worked with Oscar Diggs many times before…as an acrobat with the Bailum & Barney Circus…she was no stranger to his imperious and commanding characterizations, including that of the 'great and powerful Oz'. She now knew where the idea for that particular characterization came from.

"Friend of yours?"

Now it was Betsy's turn to be startled, and she spun around to spot the source of the voice, which was behind her…

…and she saw a furry green monkey looking back at her, smiling.

"WOOT!" She immediately scooped the former gillikin boy up from the ground, giving him a tight, affectionate squeeze. "Ooooh! It's so good t' _see_ you again!"

"Likewise." Woot replied. "How have you been?"

"Nev'r mind _me!_ " Betsy countered as she released the green monkey from her hug. "How have _you_ been? Are y' still with Mrs. Yoop?"

Woot nodded. "As you can see, she's been true to her word. This is one of those times when she lets me go outside to wander for a few hours. I have to be back by a certain time, though…but that's not for a while. So what was with all that noise? Who was that big green head? That wasn't the Wizard of Oz, was it?"

"Yup! Princess Ozma took Dor'thy an' most o' her friends on a dipple-matic trip t' some place call'd Jinxland." Betsy explained. "Ozma has th' wizard back in pow'r while she's away…" She then indicated herself proudly. "…an' _I'm_ his royal advis'r."

"Wow! That sounds neat!" Woot remarked, smiling. "Well, if you need my help with anything, maybe I can ask Mrs. Yoop to let me stay with you for…well, however long you might need me."

Betsy's expression became one of concern now as they began a casual stroll among the gillikin trees. "Woot…honestly. Have y' been _happy_ livin' with Mrs. Yoop? She hasn't been mean t' you, has she?"

"Well…she _does_ get a little grumpy sometimes, but…she's a yookoohoo. When you live with one, you have to expect their kind of vanity. She never hurts me, though." The green monkey replied. "She's been a little distant, though. She goes into one of her Sitting Rooms sometimes and just… _sits_ in there. Doesn't say a word. I go in to see what's wrong, and she either ignores me, orders me to leave, or she asks me to come closer. When I do, she puts on this sad face…and then gives me a hug."

"But…you've had _good_ times with her, haven't you?" Betsy asked.

"Oh yeah. Sometimes, it even feels like I'm with mom again when I'm with her." Woot replied. "She even asks me what being with mom and dad was like. Being with Mrs. Yoop for her exercise walks is always nice, and when I'm out gathering raw materials for her to use to make our meals, it gives me a chance to stretch my legs from all the jumping and swinging and climbing. In fact, it's kinda scary that I'm finally getting used to all this monkey stuff. It's becoming, like, second nature to me."

"Well, I s'pose bein' a monkey for as long as _you_ have will do that." Betsy mused. "So you're always eatin' nothin' but bananas an' stuff?"

Woot shook his head. "No…I mean, I like bananas, but…Mrs. Yoop likes making fish balls for the both of us. They're pretty good, too. They're always warm and soft when she makes them. Crunchy, too. You'd like it if you like eating fish at all. Want me to bring you one someday?"

Betsy shrugged, smiling. "Sure! I'll try one." Another thought occurred to her. "Does she ask about me? Mrs. Yoop, that is."

"Not really…although when she lets me go out, she does say 'if you see that Betsy girl, tell her I said 'hi'.' She hasn't warned me against seeing you, though." He then noticed that the Oklahoma girl's head had lowered, a troubled expression on her face. He stopped in front of her. "What's wrong, Betsy?"

Betsy lifted her head so her eyes could meet Woot's. "It jus'…doesn't seem right that Mrs. Yoop is, well, _lettin'_ y' go out for whatev'r time she gives you. I mean…don't y' think you should go out whenev'r y' want, for as long as y' want?"

"I really don't mind that, Betsy. I mean…it teaches me responsibility." Woot responded. "That's all I ever used to do when my parents were alive. I always went out wandering, never caring to do the things they wanted me to do to help them around the house. I still wish I could have done something to keep the Wicked Witch of the East from killing my parents, but…I wasn't there when it happened. I was out wandering."

Betsy still looked concerned, but she nodded in understanding. "As long as she isn't hurtin' you."

Betsy then heard Oscar's voice in her head. _Mombi has arrived, my dear. Did you want to come back to the palace?_

Woot tilted his head to the side, noticing Betsy's momentary distraction. She then turned her eyes back to Woot's. "I…have t' go right now. Th' Wiz'rd needs me." Betsy scooped the green monkey back in her arms to hug him.

"I miss you." Woot then admitted as he hugged Betsy back. "Take care of yourself."

"You too, Woot." Betsy lowered the monkey back to the ground. "Tell Mrs. Yoop I said hi."

As per Oscar's instructions, Betsy raised an extended thumb, and Woot saw his human friend from Oklahoma disappear in an instant in the very next moment. He couldn't help but sigh, his shoulders drooping down.

"You must really like her, don't you, Woot?"

The green monkey turned around curiously…

…and his eyes fell upon a very, very beautiful young woman with long locks of wavy blond hair. She wore a long, multicolored dress which vibrantly alternated the colors of the rainbow. She had a very pretty and youthful face, free of any and all blemish. Her smile was pleasant and soothing as she lowered to a knee in front of the wide-eyed green monkey.

Woot nodded in answer to her question. "Y-yes, I do." His head then tilted to the side. "Who are you? How do you know me?"

"I am Rainbow's Daughter, Woot. You and your friend saved me from an embarrassing predicament at the hands of that yookoohoo, who held me against my will as her pet canary." The woman replied. "My name is Polychrome."

"You were that bird she had?" Woot exclaimed. "Wow…you look _beautiful!_ How did you…"

"How did I change back? Ozma restored me." Polychrome answered. "I guess Mrs. Yoop didn't know I was a fairy. That's why it was easy for Ozma to restore me." Her expression then went serious. "It's…not so easy in your case, though. You were human. Someone would need to take your place as a green monkey. I thought on this. If you didn't like being with Mrs. Yoop, we could always give your form to her. Don't you think it would be fitting, Woot?"

"Please…don't do that." Woot raised a simian hand in restraint. "If you were listening to my conversation with Betsy…"

"I was." Polychrome assured. "I can understand your logic, too. It's…very selfless of you." She then placed a slender hand on the green monkey's furry shoulder. "Do you miss being a human boy, Woot?"

"Well…not really." Woot admitted. "I mean…I can wander around better this way. Treetops, roofs, branches…it's kinda fun being a monkey."

Polychrome's expression brightened. "Really? Hmmm…" A glowing, glittery rainbow effect then cascaded around the smiling fairy girl, quickly altering her human beauty to a much more furry and simian one which was the same size as Woot. Where Rainbow's Daughter once stood, a cute green monkey…a female one…had taken her place. "…how about you show me how good a monkey you are, Woot? OOH-OOH-OOH!"

"Huh? Uhh…okay…" The quick transformation took Woot by surprise, but he went ahead and began scaling a nearby tree with practiced quickness. Once he reached a high branch, he looked around to see if Polychrome had followed him.

He was instead startled by the sound of Polychrome's voice behind him. "BOO!"

Woot nearly fell off the branch at the sound of the fairy's voice, and while he was initially sour over the shock, he joined in with Polychrome's merry laughter.

He logically spent the remainder of his time with Polychrome, playing around in the treetops as only monkeys could.

He was highly appreciative of Polychrome for doing this. When she restored herself, and they parted ways so Woot could return to Mrs. Yoop, he hoped he would see this sweet and colorful fairy girl again.

* * *

Upon dissolving the large, green, disembodied head he had generated with the help of the Magic Picture, Oscar was beside himself with laughter. Standing near him was the Empress Nimmie, who smirked as she shook her head. Although it was satisfying to watch Mombi squirm as she did, Nimmie wasn't very appreciative of his brief jab at Betsy.

"Ho ho hee hee _heee!_ Did you see the look on that wicked old bag's _face?_ " The wizard merrily remarked between his laughing fits. " _Priceless! Hah hah hahah haaah!_ "

"Not bad, your highness." Nimmie responded. "But did you really need to startle Betsy like that?"

"Oh, don't worry. She's fine! You didn't notice the little wink I gave her? She's not mad, Empress. We've worked together so many times during our run with Bailum & Barney!" Oscar reasoned. "In fact, I'm the reason she became a circus acrobat in the first place!"

This bit surprised Nimmie. Her eyebrows arched straight up. "Really?"

"Oh, yes, my dear Empress. That circus became her means of escape from a horrible existence at a most dreadful Orphanage." Oscar explained. "Sadly, her parents died during an ocean voyage to Australia that ran into a horrible storm. About a month or so before they took the journey which resulted in their tragic demise, however, they had taken young Betsy to a circus performance. Right then and there, Betsy knew just what she wanted to do with her life. It was difficult, however, for her to be able to leave the Orphanage with everyone watching the children so dutifully. She told me she very nearly killed herself trying to escape, but she managed to avoid her pursuers on that rainy night."

Nimmie's eyes remained wide as Oscar spoke, absorbing every word the Wizard shared. She looked a little more relieved when he told her of Betsy's eventual escape. "Oh! Thank _goodness._ But…who could have taken Betsy to such a bad place?"

"Well, not _all_ Orphanages are bad. Some are fine, but the one Betsy's selfish uncle took her to was obviously not one of the better ones." Oscar replied. "But those days are thankfully behind her now." The old man glanced at the Magic Picture now, and he was a little surprised to be seeing Betsy speaking with an unusually green monkey. "Hmmm! I don't think I've ever seen a green monkey before. I wonder how Betsy knows him?"

Oscar and Nimmie spent the next quiet moment observing Betsy and her simian friend as they took a pleasant stroll among the trees.

"Soooo…what are we waiting for now, your majesty?" Nimmie asked.

"Betsy's signal, of course." Oscar replied. "Once I see her raise her thumb, I'll bring her back here."

Two knocks were then heard at the boudoir door. The tin-plated former munchkin stepped over to answer it, and saw the head maid, Jellia Jamb, on the other side. "Oh! Empress. The wizard has a visitor downstairs. We're keeping a close eye on her just outside the throne room, even though she looks a bit scared out of her mind. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen Mombi look so scared."

Oscar couldn't help but giggle upon overhearing this. "I should tell her it's been _over_ twenty minutes, just to see the look on her face!" He let out another fit of laughter at this.

"Now, now, your majesty." Nimmie remarked. "We _do_ need to question her on important matters, yes?"

"Oh, believe me, Empress Nimmie." Jellia mused. "I think _I'd_ get a kick out of seeing Mombi suffer a little more. She turned me and my maids into _mice_ once!"

"Nooo, no, Empress Nimmie is right." Oscar began to compose himself. "We'll be right down." But yet again, he began to giggle. "Tell Mombi…I'll be down in another _twenty minutes!_ " The wizard once again erupted into a fit of laughter.

Jellia shook her head as she stepped away from the half-open door to the boudoir, although she was quite tempted to tell the once wicked and powerful gillikin witch how long Oscar said, in jest, he would take. Just to see what kind of a reaction it would bring.

Oscar's tin guest placed her hands on her hips as she saw the interim ruler of the land continue his laughing fits. Although Nimmie was smiling, she was shaking her head as well, despite her general amusement. "You're really getting a kick out of this, aren't you?"

"Oh, come now, Empress. You have no idea what kind of treachery that woman is capable of!" Oscar reminded. "According to my mentor…Glinda, of course…it was Mombi who forced Locasta, the Good Witch of the North, into some kind of temporary exile. She was also, apparently, responsible for enslaving a young boy who turned out to be the very same princess Ozma! She even turned the poor lad into a giant _spider!_ Now that Mombi is powerless, believe me…every laugh, every titter I utter at her expense is worth a nod of appreciation from the head of every gillikin that suffered from her thankfully ill-fated attempts to become the Wicked Witch of the North!"

Giving every word of Oscar's justification consideration, Nimmie nodded in her understanding. "Hmmm…point taken, your majesty."

Oscar glanced back to the Magic Picture. Apparently, Betsy was still speaking with the green monkey. As the old man was anxious to begin questioning Mombi, he opted to make a mentalized inquiry to the Oklahoma girl, reciting the words he was to send. "Mombi has arrived, my dear. Did you want to come back to the palace?" He followed this statement with the intonation of a few magic words.

"You know…for an apprentice, you've become capable of doing quite a bit of magic, your highness." Nimmie suspiciously observed.

"Oh, believe me. If I explained, you might find it a little difficult to comprehend. Respectfully speaking, of course." Oscar replied. "I tend to leave such explanations to Glinda, I'm afraid." Looking back at the Magic Picture, he finally saw the sign from Betsy. "Ah, there we go. Time to return my brave little avatar to the palace."

From a chalice Oscar had on a nearby table, the wizard poured its contents…a white, ash-like powder…on the ground in a circle. He then raised his arms high, speaking in a strong voice. " _SZAHN-VEKKH!_ "

With a loud bang and a half-second's flash of bright light, the powder was gone. In its place, a bewildered Betsy Bobbin stood. She began to cough, however, from the momentary but strong scent of sulfur in the air around her.

"Welcome back, Queen of Diamonds." Oscar placed a hand on the smiling Oklahoma girl's shoulder as he led her to the door of the boudoir, with the tin empress following behind them. "Outstanding work…although I can't help but ask who that simian friend of yours was?"

"Well…he's a friend, Mist'r Diggs." Betsy replied. "I'll tell y' more about 'im lat'r."

Oscar nodded. "Very well. I'm rather anxious to begin questioning that wicked old crone myself. Now I might need to make a couple of fabrications during this interrogation. I ask that you play along with it, for information's sake. Even if I make you sound far more powerful than you really are."

"As far as I am concerned, Betsy _is_ a very powerful person, your majesty." Nimmie noted, smiling, as the trio descended down the stairs to the throne room level. "And as she has sworn herself to the oaths of winkie citizenry, it is with pride that I can say she is one of _us_ now." The empress gave the Oklahoma girl a wink when she angled her grinning head to Nimmie.

"Well! Far be it for me to argue with a marvelously tin-plated Empress, my dear Betsy." Oscar mused.

Once they were past the stairs, they headed for the throne room doors…but Betsy's hand halted the old man. "I think y' should use that big ol' green head with 'er."

"I concur, your majesty." Nimmie added.

A somewhat wicked smile now played on Oscar's lips. "I was _hoping_ you would recommend that approach. So be it." He then closed his eyes and began to breathe deep breaths, waving his arms to the skies, and then swinging them back down to waist level, the middle two fingers of his open hands touching together lightly. "This will require a much-improved disappearing act. Hiding in plain sight, so to speak."

The Wizard then sharply swung his hands back up to the skies as he spoke a single word. "FOO- _PAAH!_ "

And with that, the Wizard of Oz disappeared entirely!

Betsy looked around curiously, as did Nimmie. Oscar's disembodied voice startled the Oklahoma girl as it whispered unto her ear. "Go ahead inside. I just need to get behind the throne seat."

Betsy nodded, smiling, and entered the throne room. The doors lingered open for a moment, no doubt from Oscar following his avatar in.

The young advisor could not help but look amused by the sight of a _very_ nervous-looking Mombi glancing around the general area in front of the throne room seat fearfully. Her eyes still boggled, and she was still quivering with fright.

Betsy couldn't pass up the chance to gloat as she stepped into view of the gillikin witch, her hands on her hips. "HAH! I _told_ ya I'd tell, y' mean ol' witch!"

Mombi's fearful expression devolved to one of anger when she spotted Betsy. "Meddlesome _trespasser!_ You'll pay _dearly_ for this, you conniving little _rat!_ "

Two loud explosions then resounded, and two plumes of glowing green smoke, fired upward on either side of the empty throne as a large and familiar-looking green head once again scowled down angrily upon Mombi. " _WHAT DID YOU CALL MY ROYAL ADVISOR?_ " The voice of the great Oz boomed.

"AAAAAAH! Mercy! _Mercy!_ " Mombi dropped to the ground, bowing repeatedly and fearfully to the large green head glaring down at her from above the throne seat. "Can you not grant me _justice_ for answering your questions?" She shot an accusing finger towards Betsy. "This little wretch _trespassed_ in my home!"

" _WRETCH?_ " The eyes of the head went wide with fury, the green plumes of flame hissing loudly in the amplification of the Wizard's rage. "YOU _DARE_ CALL MY AVATAR A _WRETCH?_ WHAT MAKES YOU THINK SHE IS WHAT YOU _THINK_ SHE IS, MISCREANT GILLIKIN? THE QUEEN OF DIAMONDS GOES WHERE SHE PLEASES, AND ALWAYS IN THE NAME OF _JUSTICE!_ SHE CAUGHT YOU DOING SOMETHING YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DOING, MOMBI THE POWERLESS! SOMETHING I, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ, OBSERVED FIRSTHAND!"

Mombi looked a bit mystified as her gaze went between the large green head and the Oklahoma girl. "Queen of…Diamonds?"

"SHE ARRIVED HERE WITH THE PASSING OF THE LAST SHOOTING STAR TO COAST OVER OUR LANDS ONE EVENING!" The large green head explained. "SHE TOOK THE FORM OF AN ORDINARY YOUNG GIRL! GAZING UPON HER TRUE FORM WOULD CAUSE THE EYES OF WICKED WIZARDS AND WITCHES TO _BURN!_ SHE SHALL BE WATCHING YOU, WICKED WITCH, AS I _QUESTION_ YOU!"

" _Yes!_ Yes! Speak your questions, great Oz!" Mombi blubbered, now just as fearful of the royal advisor she had thought was a mere human girl.

"BE WARNED, MOMBI…I WILL _KNOW_ IF YOU LIE WHEN YOU ANSWER MY QUESTIONS!" The great green head ominously remarked. "NOW…DID YOU, OR DID YOU NOT, ENCHANT A YOUNG JINXLAND PRINCESS NAMED GLORIA?"

Mombi's fearful expression dissolved into a more confused one now. After a moment, she shook her head. "No. I…I didn't. I've never even _been_ to Jinxland. That place is surrounded by impassable mountains! I have no business with them!"

As Oscar listened, he was partially conscious of the small gemstone he held in his hand, which he had pulled from a pocket of his waistcoat. A gemstone which would have vibrated if a lie had been spoken. Provided unto Ozma by Glinda, the fairy princess had given Oscar this stone prior to her departure.

But the Wizard felt no vibrations from the stone as Mombi gave her answer, which surprised Oscar, given Mombi's penchant for deception. He now had to surmise that Gloria might have simply dropped Mombi's name as part of a deliberate fabrication.

Not a good sign, he thought to himself, but there was another lead he had to inquire about, strictly for curiosity's sake.

Mombi gasped frightfully once the silent voice of the large head boomed once again. "WHAT OF THE LAND OF PINGAREE? THE LAND OF REGOS? COREGOS?"

"No, no, and no!" Mombi answered, frowning in her ongoing confusion.

The stone Oscar held remained unresponsive, once again surprising the interim ruler. It was clear now that Gloria was dropping names to serve an apparent fabrication…but why those specific names, he thought? Are these actual places, or was she getting creative?

He concluded that the next answers he needed had to come from the only source that could give him the most reliable of answers.

The Magic Picture.

"Please, g-great Oz…" Mombi's voice shook as she spoke. "…are we f-finished yet? Have you any more…"

" _I SHALL BE THE JUDGE OF WHETHER OR NOT WE ARE FINISHED!_ " The great green head roared, the shock of which elicited a gasp from the gillikin witch. "YOU HAVE BEEN WISELY TRUTHFUL IN YOUR WORDS THUS FAR, MOMBI…BUT YOU STILL HAVE YET TO ANSWER TO THE REASON WHY YOU WERE CAUGHT DOING SOMETHING YOU WERE FORBIDDEN TO DO! WHAT MANNER OF POTION WORK WERE YOU CULTIVATING, MOMBI?"

It was the old gillikin's nature, fearful or not, to keep from answering such obviously incriminating questions, although she wondered if speaking a true fact, using it to cover for her actual intentions, would work. "As…as you are no doubt aware, great Oz…I-I live on a farm which has produced little in the way of crops. I only have one cow to my name for livestock. I _have_ been creating potions, but…I mean to use them to assist in growing my crops! Make them grow large, strong, and healthy!"

The stone in Oscar's hand finally shook, the sharp vibrations revealing Mombi's lie as she spoke it.

"RUINOUS WOMAN! HOW _DARE_ YOU FEED ME LIES!" The green head boomed, his words punctuated by the plumes and bangs of green smoke flanking his head. "IT IS THE NATURE OF EVERY WICKED WITCH TO SEEK VENGEANCE FOR A PERSONAL AFFRONT! YOU WERE CONTEMPLATING REVENGE, MOMBI! YET YOU WROUGHT YOUR MAGICAL EVIL ON A BRAVE YOUNG GIRL IN THE GUISE OF AN EMERALD CITY MAID! HOW WOULD _YOU_ FEEL IF YOU WERE TO CARRY THE WEIGHT YOU INFLICTED UPON DOROTHY GALE'S BODY?"

"B-But she…she didn't seem to care!" Mombi whined.

"INDEED! SHE IS SPIRITUALLY STRONGER THAN YOU HAD IMAGINED!" The glowing head replied. "YOU WILL SLEEP ON THIS TONIGHT, OLD CRONE! UPON THE VERY NEXT MORNING, IF YOU HAVE NOT GAINED UNDERSTANDING OF THIS, YOU _YOURSELF_ SHALL CARRY THAT WEIGHT DOROTHY ONCE WORE! NOW RISE AND _LEAVE_ US, MOMBI THE POWERLESS!"

"Yeah! Go on! Get out o' here, ya mean ol' witch!" Betsy added, frowning.

Mombi rose up, frowning upon hearing Betsy's words. The wickedness returned to the voice of the powerless witch. "What of the _justice_ I asked for? No matter who your girl is, she was still trespassing on my property!"

" _I SAID_ _GO_ _!_ " The head's face was now right in front of Mombi as he roared these words, the powerful exhale of his voice streaming the old witch's clothes and hair behind her as she hollered in terror, and then turned to flee from the head as fast as she could. The head followed close behind her until she reached the doors and stumbled through them…

…after which the large head seemed to 'pop' like a benign balloon, flying around erratically as it deflated, emitting an amusing, sustained sound of flatulence as it shrank, dissolving into thin air once it was small enough. Betsy couldn't help but giggle seeing this.

Oscar dropped his invisibility and stepped out from behind the throne room seat, and also dropped the illusion masking the glittery Queen of Diamonds appearance he had given Betsy. The Oklahoma girl and the winkie empress…who observed the whole interrogation from the doors to the throne room…stepped over to the now visible interim ruler.

"It seems we have a few new questions to pose to the Magic Picture now." Oscar remarked. "Find out just how imaginative that young Jinxland princess was when she gave us that message."

Nimmie nodded in agreement. "Indeed. I've never heard of those lands she mentioned…but I do know that there are lands outside of Oz, at least. It is worth the inquiries to confirm, your majesty."

Betsy, however, had an evidently different curiosity. "What about Mombi, your highness? Are y' really gonna make 'er fat?"

"That would certainly seem poetically fitting, don't you think, o' Queen of Diamonds?" Oscar answered. "For the moment, however, we will need to leave her to her dread. Right now, we have a Magic Picture to once again confront."

Relocating to Ozma's boudoir, the interim ruler made his inquiries far more simple than his first grandiose attempt at requesting visuals from the Magic Picture. He began with a request to view the island of Pingaree.

The provided image revealed what looked to be a busy maritime community, with several strange-looking, but sea-worthy vessels. Its residents looked content, with no one…by Oscar's perception, anyway…appearing to conceal contrary sentiments. Some attention was given to a newly-arriving ship as they watched, as one of the sailors produced something…Oscar surmised it to be a bag of some kind…which caused the small crowd of sailors and bystanders gathered by this ship to react positively to its crew's apparent findings.

"Seems peaceful enough." Nimmie remarked as they watched the images.

The Wizard nodded. "Magic Picture, show me the King and Queen of Pingaree."

Sitting upon a pearl-encrusted throne, a gray-haired old man dressed in regal robes with a kingly, pearl-encrusted crown upon his head…with a kind-looking old woman at his side…were in the midst of speaking to a small, but manly young boy who similarly wore regal attire. Oscar surmised this boy to be their son, perhaps even a Prince. As the Magic Picture dispensed only moving images at the request of whoever looked upon it, however, they could not hear what the King was saying, but the image showed the old man to lead the boy out of the image's frame, while the Queen remained where she was.

He quickly made a follow-up request. "Magic Picture, continue showing me the King of Pingaree."

Having provided enough of an identification, even if it wasn't a name, the Picture complied, and the image blurred, re-sharpening and following the land's current King as the old man led the boy to a banquet hall. He then bent down to the ground and engaged a mechanism disguised as a floor tile. From the space beyond the tile, the King produced a silken bag.

As the King presented this bag to the boy, he emptied its contents…a pink-colored pearl, and a pure white one…into the boy's outstretched hand.

Seeing this, however, brought visible distress to the King. The boy appeared to ask what was wrong, upon which the King held up three fingers as he responded. He now looked greatly worried.

"Hmmm…two pearls, and he's holding up three fingers." Oscar mused thoughtfully.

"Maybe there should've been three pearls in that bag?" Betsy wondered aloud.

"Judging by the look on the King's face, I'd say if you were right, Betsy, then that third pearl must have been stolen." Nimmie deduced.

Oscar continued to observe as Nimmie spoke. "It looks like the King is nevertheless entrusting those remaining pearls to the boy. Unless they are of purely sentimental value…which I would readily doubt in business conducted _anywhere_ in these nonestic lands…I'd say those pearls are enchanted to some important degree."

"Let's look at those oth'r lands, your highness." Betsy remarked.

"Ah, yes. Let's start with Regos." After Oscar made the requisite request, the image of the King…still speaking to the boy, this time with a much more nervous expression…once again blurred out of focus.

When the blur sharpened once more, the images presented were much more…militant. Among what looked to be various encampments along the coastline of Regos, a mostly male group of soldiers were engaged in a variety of exercises, each soldier's face looking considerably harsh. They seemed eager to fight. Other soldiers were fighting each other, exchanging violent blows at the urging of a nearby instructor, who was no doubt hollering provocations.

Oscar couldn't help but surmise that this was a culture preparing for some kind of war.

The Wizard rubbed at his chin in contemplation. "Magic Picture…show me the King and Queen of Regos."

Rather than blur out of focus, the image swiftly moved to a single person. As Oscar was very much an educated man, he had seen visual depictions of well-built, muscular heroes associated with the pantheons of various gods and goddesses. While the interim ruler of Oz knew he was not actually looking at that of the great greek demigod called Heracles, Oscar was nevertheless reminded of ancient artistic renderings of the bearded strongman hero when he observed the King of Regos…who had similar facial hair of his own, and who was wearing a blood red tunic resembling those of ancient Rome's culture in terms of style…observing his hardened soldiers, who wore similar tunics, continuing their rigorous drills.

Only this Heracles-like individual did not look at all heroic!

Oscar saw no female figure beside him, and so he had to conclude that the culture of Regos…harsh, as it appeared to be, and in many ways similar to the warlike culture of ancient Sparta…was solely reliant upon a King to rule it.

"Yeecch. Awfully cheery place, ain't it?" Betsy sarcastically observed.

"Indeed. Savage conflict seems to be the alpha and omega of this culture." Oscar remarked. "I should advise Glinda and Ozma to keep an eye on these people. Perhaps Coregos will be just the opposite." He turned back to the radium-framed image showing the lands of Regos, which had fortified, variously-sized buildings behind a wall which made the land look like one great big fortress.

"Magic Picture, show me the land of Coregos." Oscar commanded.

Much to Oscar's surprise, the images that came into focus were not much different from those of Regos! In fact, many of the designs of the buildings and the fortified walls were a veritable mimic of the Regos designs. The only real, visible difference was that the buildings in Coregos did not have nasty-looking spikes lining the tops of the buildings and the walls. The ambience was not as harsh to look at, either.

Things looked more organized among the soldiers here, too. There was more of a sense of discipline as they engaged in drills and exercises of their own. The looks of the soldiers were far less savage, although the tunics they wore had sky blue colors.

Also separating the visual makeup from that of the more savage Regos environment was the presence of farming plots, and a scattering of what appeared to be bright pink-skinned, lavender-haired humanoids, all of whom seemed to be cowering beneath more dominant-looking Coregos humans. These bright pink creatures…who aside from their skin and their hair were essentially human, and of all ages and both genders, even young children…were always on their hands and knees, apparently serving the whims of their masters and mistresses, who were armed with black whips. As Oscar and his friends watched, they occasionally showed these whips in a threatening fashion, and the mere sight of these whips compelled the pink-skinned slaves to continue whatever work they had been bound to.

"Hmmm. I sense a trend…although these Coregos people are particularly disgusting." Nimmie observed. "If Nicholas and I had a Magic Picture like Ozma's, I'd want to keep an eye on these cultures, too."

Oscar nodded in agreement, and when he made his next request to the Magic Picture to reveal its rulers, the image blurred out of focus once again.

When it re-sharpened, the presented image was that of a well-toned woman this time, and she had a pink-skinned, lavender-haired young boy cowering fearfully on the ground to her right. She was being confronted by a man in a red tunic here, compelling Oscar to surmise the possibility of an alliance between Regos and Coregos. This man then gestured to the Queen, and the two walked over to a scrawled-out map.

The man in the red tunic gestured upon this map, which presented two strange, round shapes resembling land masses. Arrows had been drawn from both of these shapes towards a single, smaller land mass. The Queen nodded silently as the man continued to explain some kind of strategy.

"Hmmm…" Betsy thoughtfully stepped in front of the radium-lined artifact. "…Magic Picture, show me where Pinga-ray is on that picture there."

The image moved to the small land representation where all the arrows were pointing to.

Oscar's eyes widened. "Mercy me…they…they must be planning…some kind of an _invasion!_ "

"I wonder, though, how Princess Gloria could know anything about all of this." Nimmie wondered aloud. "These communities, after all, are far from Jinxland, which in itself is an isolated territory."

"Indeed. This does open up a fresh round of questions, doesn't it?" With a wave of the Wizard's hand, the image within the radium frame was once again rendered nothing more than an animated, tranquil meadow. He then turned back to Betsy and Nimmie. "Perhaps Gloria's disappearance is the very cause of this impending battle?"

"If Gloria has anything to do with it at all, your majesty." Nimmie surmised. "She _was_ lying about Mombi, after all."

Oscar nodded. "She could indeed be trying to divert our attentions, yes…but at the same time, I…I can't let this go, now that we have seen this."

"You don't mean to go out to Pingaree, do you, your highness?" Nimmie looked a bit alarmed at this notion. "Ozma ordained that you hold vigil over the throne in her absence!"

"Oh, I'm entirely aware, Empress…but I'm also aware of my failings as the ruler of this land during the reign of those wicked witches." Oscar explained. "Far too many had branded me a coward and a humbug when they learned that their great and powerful Wizard of Oz was nothing more than a crafty old man playing a smoke-and-mirrors game with them. Now that I have become adept in the ways of _true_ magic, I feel a need in my heart to lend the people of Pingaree a dollop of assistance so that whatever dreadful invasion being contemplated can be prevented."

"Ah- _hah!_ So you're gonna blast those Regos an' Corry-gos ships with bolts from th' blue, aren't ya?" Betsy guessed, pumping a fist in emphasis.

"Oh, dear me, no! Why, I…I haven't _that_ kind of power, Betsy!" Oscar replied. "But I _can_ send them something…or rather, some _one_ …" He placed a hand on Betsy's glittery shoulder. "…far more powerful, and ten times more resourceful."

Both Betsy and Nimmie looked a little alarmed at this. "Y…y' wanna send _me?_ "

"Now wait a minute, your majesty…you do realize she is only a _child!_ " Nimmie warily noted. "I hope you don't intend to send her out there all by herself!"

"Not at all, Empress." Oscar assured. He then turned to Betsy. "Didn't you once speak of a certain soldier you once shared an adventure with in Munchkinland? One who was just as tin-plated as the Emperor of the winkies?"

It didn't take long for Betsy to realize who the Wizard was referring to. Her eyes went wide as she gasped. " _Fyter!_ Yes! He'd be a _swell_ partn'r, your highness!"

Nimmie blinked when she heard the name. Her tone, while reflecting her agreement, sounded hesitant as well. "Y-yes. I…I do agree, Betsy. Assuming, of course, that he is…well…not currently involved in any affairs in the Gillikin Country."

"They can always fall back on Captain Rigorick of the Purple Heart Patrol in Fyter's absence." Oscar rationalized. He then rubbed at his chin again, deep in thought. "I also need to figure out a means to get you and Fyter over there. It's…too far a distance for me to simply relocate you both out there, so…we will need to consider another means of transportation."

"I would suggest the tin carriage, but…it's not exactly sea-worthy." Nimmie noted.

"Perhaps you can provide me with consultation from your finest craftspeople instead?" Oscar suggested.

The Empress nodded, smiling. "That, I can definitely arrange."

* * *

Recognizing the scent of her owner, Dorothy began wagging her tail as Blinkie's aged hand scratched and rubbed around the fur of the former Kansas girl's head. She sat on the ground next to the one-eyed witch, who was seated in a far more comfortable chair in her eight-sided home, as the Princess Gloria looked down at the witch's new pet.

"So this was once the girl who melted your mentor, eh?" The blue-veined princess observed. "She seems to be appreciating your attentions. I'm surprised you didn't melt her, Blinkie. Poetic justice can be awfully delicious."

"I would much rather humiliate her. If I just kill her, I get no lasting sense of satisfaction." Blinkie responded. "Besides…I wanted a dog of my own since I ran into hers, but Dorothy's little black beast wouldn't let me take him. Having done this, I effectively kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I take my revenge on Dorothy, _and_ I get my dog."

As Blinkie spoke, Gloria stepped over to Dorothy and knelt down in front of the anthropomorphic half-canine, who tilted her head curiously to the princess. Staring back at the young noble, she had to whimper fearfully at the cold, black, emotionless gaze of the frigid-hearted young girl.

Gloria then shook her head shamefully. "Hard to believe this was once a human girl." She then turned her head to Blinkie with a curious expression. "Is this a permanent change?"

"Well, _I'm_ certainly not going to restore her, and I certainly won't let her go." Blinkie answered. "As far as I'm concerned, Dorothy Gale is going to be my pet for the rest of her life."

Both human women heard the sound of a man clearing his throat, and they turned to see that their guest…the young man called Goog L'Goo…had finally arrived.

"Back from your hiding place, little boy?" Gloria wickedly mused. "Or do you need more time to nurse your boo-boos?"

Goog smirked. "You called for me, your highness."

"Yes. I did." Gloria confirmed. "It's time you came clean about those rocks of yours. This time, I'm not letting you change the subject on me."

"Your Medusa Stone is gone." Goog countered.

"Don't underestimate Blinkie here." She gestured to the one-eyed witch continuing to stroke at Dorothy's thick, brown-blotched white fur. "You see the furry beast sitting at her feet? That used to be a human girl. In fact, this was the very same Kansas girl who killed two witches not too long ago. Obviously, Dorothy's luck has just run out, seeing as how she was no match for Blinkie's power. Now if you don't start explaining what makes the stones in that bag so special, I'll have Blinkie turn you into a snake."

Grinning wickedly, Blinkie pulled a pouch from one of the pockets of her robes, wagging it suggestively. "Not even a lethal one. Just a small, harmless garter snake."

Goog swallowed audibly, now looking quite nervous. He knew that Blinkie's other witches were in the vicinity, so any notion of escaping this predicament would be next to impossible.

Still, he had to confirm one suspicion. "How am I to know that you won't just go ahead and transform me anyway once I've told you?"

Gloria flashed a cold grin now. "You won't know, sweetheart. So be a good little pet…just like this furry, witch-killing Kansas dog here…and tell us about those stones. _Now._ "

"Start by telling us just how many stones are in that bag." Blinkie added.

Goog sighed. "Well…there _were_ ten. I know the most important of them…the blue one…was taken from the bag. I was lucky to get my hands on that one when I was at Pingaree during my travels. That pearl grants super strength to whoever holds it. I couldn't get the other two."

Gloria sighed irritably. "Then tell us about the other nine, idiot."

"There is a small red gem in that bag which, when thrown, produces a loud bang and a small explosion on impact." Goog explained. "It cannot be shattered, nor crushed, by human hands."

Blinkie nodded, rubbing beneath Dorothy's furry chin. "Eight more. Keep going."

"The purple pearl provides various types of seafood to the one who holds it." Goog shrugged. "I don't know how often it does that. I discovered it by accident. The food is really good, though."

Gloria nodded. "Seven to go."

"The green pearl reduces one's size considerably." Goog noted. "That's how I was able to get into that trick tile in Pingaree."

Blinkie quirked an eyebrow. "How small?"

"No bigger than a fly." Goog answered.

Blinkie nodded in understanding. "Six more, pet."

"The gold pearl allows whoever holds it to blend in with a stone surface, or resemble a rock formation when standing still." Goog explained. "I learned that during my escape from Pingaree. Fooled all those pearl rake-wielding pursuers, too."

"Interesting." Gloria remarked. "Five more."

"Sadly, I never discovered what the others can do, your highness." Goog admitted. "As far as I know, the others may just be precious stones."

Gloria turned her head curiously to Blinkie, who nodded. "He isn't lying." The one-eyed witch confirmed.

"Oh…I did manage to get the silver pearl out of the bag before it was stolen." Goog quickly added. "It is the power of that pearl which has created this barrier around Jinxland. So there are actually four that I know nothing about."

"These enchanted stones can serve us well, your highness." Blinkie advised, having turned her head to the young princess.

"If we had them here, which we _don't,_ thanks to _this_ idiot." Gloria gestured to Goog. She turned her head back to the once very old man. If his gaze could burn a person to a crisp in his barely-contained rage, Gloria would be a pile of ash. "Does Pon know anything about these stones, 'sweetie'?"

"Well, he obviously knows about the blue pearl, but…I'm fairly certain he knows nothing about the rest of them." Goog assured.

"Finally. Something that plays to our favor." Gloria then waved him off. "You are dismissed, idiot."

Blinkie shook her head disdainfully as Goog stepped angrily away. "I'm starting to regret giving him Pon's youth."

"It reminds me that I can continue to toy with his affections." Gloria responded. "Keep him hoping that number 40 will be his lucky number the next time he proposes to me. Not that I'll ever say 'yes', of course. He's got as much chance of marrying me as that decrepit, idealistic old fool that used to be the gardener's boy. It _sickens_ me that I've wasted so much of my youth on ridiculous matters of _love_. Ech! It turns my stomach just to say the word."

Blinkie had to smile over Gloria's behavior. It was only a couple of weeks ago that the girl was the sweetest and the fairest of young and lovesick noble maidens to ever fall for an annoyingly modest gardener's boy. Uncommonly kind, she used to be, before Blinkie and her witches had been hired by Gloria's uncle…King Krewl…to capture her and quite literally enchant her beating heart. She was admirably defiant to the idea of marrying the wealthy, but selfish and bullying old man called Googly-Goo, preferring the charming, handsome, and equally kind-hearted Pon instead. Krewl had thought Gloria's resistance would weaken when the idealistic gardener's boy was captured, and Blinkie swapped Pon's vibrant youth with Goog's withered, centenarian age.

Still, even after witnessing Pon's transformation, Gloria maintained her defiance! There was only one remaining option, and it was one she was initially hesitant to apply. The Chill of the Frozen Heart was a powerfully effective ritual, but it would at least give the girl a rough semblance of Krewl's nature.

The one-eyed witch never realized, however, that once the heart of the princess had been enchanted, Gloria would go so far as to not only turn every innocent man, woman, and child in Jinxland into solid statues with the Medusa Stone, but Krewl himself as well. Her excuse? Apparently, his 'constant scheming was giving her a headache'.

The anthropomorphic dog's head lowered fearfully as Gloria glared at her once again. "I'll never love you either, Dorothy. You'd better be a good dog around me."

"That won't be a problem, your highness, for as long as she wears her beast collar." Blinkie assured.

"Poooor Dorothy. How does it feel to be nothing more than a stupid little dog, hmm?" Gloria cruelly gloated as she lowered to a knee, bringing her face close to the dog girl's furry head. "I bet you wish you had never left Kansas, eh? Well, it's too late now. You're just going to have to get used to eating out of a bowl, gnawing on bones, and licking Blinkie's hand from now on, _doggie._ "

Dorothy's response was to fearfully whimper as she recoiled. Not because of Gloria's words, but from the very presence of the blue-veined, harsh-eyed princess being so close to her.

Gloria rose back to her feet, her eyes still on Dorothy. "Her fur looks too full and vibrant. I _hate_ that. I want her looking starved and…and…feral!"

"As you wish, your highness." Blinkie lowered her head in acknowledgement as Gloria left the room. The one-eyed witch then turned her good eye to her new pet. "I know better than to treat you like that, Dorothy. Don't worry. An illusionary appearance should capably fool her, but we won't apply that just yet. You're _my_ dog, after all, and bound to my rules." She then ran a hand through her thick, soft fur, and Dorothy instinctively panted in her approval, her curled, fluffy tail wagging happily. "Mmm, yes. You turned out so well, dear. I think in time, you'll get used to being my dog. You may even grow to like it."

Blinkie then slowly rose to her feet. "Let's get you a bowl of meat and veggies. You stay right there, Dorothy. Goooood girl."

Once Blinkie was out of the room, Shade…who hid herself very, very capably in a spot where she could hear, and pay witness, to the entire encounter between Blinkie, Goog L'Goo and Dorothy without being noticed…chose this moment to capably slip out of her shadowy space, avoiding any and all detection as per her training with the Legion of Courage.

It was during Gloria's bullying, however, that Dorothy was able to pick up on an oddly feline scent. She was too frightened, however, to betray its presence.

Once Shade was far from the eight-sided home, she raced carefully and silently among the cottage rooftops, the panther keeping her footfalls as soundless as possible, towards her rendezevous with the Scarecrow, the Lion, and the others.

She had a _lot_ of very important information to share, after all.

* * *

Oscar Zoroaster Phaedrig Issac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs could not help but be perplexed as he sat quietly in Ozma's boudoir that evening. It was one thing to suggest a means of transportation, but whatever was to be created would need to be something which could either capably traverse the sands of the deadly desert while protecting its occupants from its enchanted surface(which quite literally turned those unfortunate enough to come into physical contact with it into a mound of lifeless sand), or somehow fly over it. Although he had learned much in the ways of magic through Glinda, he required a manner of crafting knowledge which the winkies, sadly, were ultimately unable to provide. At least, for the short time in which the craftsmen…sent by their Empress, of course…conferred with the Wizard.

The only saving grace was that they would return the following day, hopefully with workable, buildable designs wrought by their overnight brainstorming. Oscar himself tried to think of a feasible contraption, in the meantime, that would allow Betsy and Fyter to safely cover the distance to and from the faraway island of Pingaree.

There was also the handicap of time. Whatever needed to be built, had to be constructed in as short a time as possible. He wondered if whatever was to be built should be big enough to at least aid in evacuating the people who lived on the island, if it were impossible for Betsy to somehow avert the attempted invasion by the armies from Regos and Coregos.

As much as he wanted to be able to create something from nothing…as he used to capably fool people into believing he could do through his acts of illusion as a part of the Bailum & Barney Circus…he did not trust himself to be able to create anything stable enough to travel such a long distance. Glinda was certainly capable of creating perfectly durable and lasting means of travel, but she was of course not a readily available option. At least, not for the moment.

Looking a bit disspirited, Oscar decided to head back down to the throne room. Betsy had turned in for the night, and so the old man knew that if anyone wanted to see him, it would be the ever-dutiful soldier with the green whiskers…Omby Amby…who would alert him to such visitations.

Omby had been told by Jellia that the Wizard was temporarily busy…this being done to give Oscar time to think on a working manner of transportation…so it was necessary for the interim ruler to inform the armed soldier that he was willing to see anyone who desired an audience with the Wizard of Oz for the time being.

Stepping outside the throne room door, however, he saw that Omby was not alone. He was standing guard at the door, but there was another older man…a familiar-looking one…sitting at the nearby benches with a stubborn look on his face, his arms crossed in front of him.

Remembering the bearded man's special talent…one which had previously helped Oscar and Betsy to reach the land of Oz…he had to believe that the fates were on his side upon recognizing the handyman called Johnny Dooit.

Omby brought his lips close to Oscar's ear to whisper to the interim ruler. "I tried telling him to come back tomorrow, but he insists on waiting for you."

"Fortunately for him, we are in dire need of his talents." Oscar confided back. "I'll take it from here, Omby. As you were." He then stepped over to the handyman. "Well, well, well! Johnny Dooit, right? I must say…your being here is most fortuitous! As it happens, I am quite badly in need of…"

"I'll do no more favors unless my own favor is addressed, Mr. Diggs!" Johnny interjected, wagging a finger in emphasis of his apparent dilemma. "This isn't a mere social call! I need your help!"

"Really? Well…I'm certain we can give this favor all manner of serious consideration." Oscar gestured to the throne room doors. "Do follow me in, my dear handyman."

Johnny rose from his seat and moved to follow the Wizard. Omby shut the door behind them as Oscar settled into the throne seat to hear Johnny's problem.

"An old friend of mine is missing." Johnny explained. "That determined old vagabond is looking for his younger brother, who also went missing. Seems they followed a road out of Butterfield and got lost. All my inquiries as to where they might have gone amounted to nothing so far."

Oscar nodded. "And…Butterfield is where these two men live?"

Johnny confirmed this with a nod of his own. "One's a bit more shaggy in appearance than the other, but they're both good men. The shaggy man is a bit more selfless compared to his brother, though, and Shaggy…as I call him…is the old friend I mentioned."

"Is that his actual name?" Oscar asked.

Johnny shook his head. "His friends call him the Shaggy Man. Or Shag, or…Shags works…"

Oscar raised a hand as he nodded. "Yes, yes, I do believe I get the idea. Well…I'm not entirely certain that the Magic Picture would accurately locate this humble gent in the absence of his birth name, but…if he's been identified enough under such a monicker, perhaps an inquiry using his more popular name will suffice." The Wizard once again rose out of the throne seat. "If you could follow me to the boudoir, then?"

Once again, the Wizard left the throne room, heading up the stairs to the boudoir with Johnny Dooit following close behind the interim ruler. Once they were in front of the radium-framed, animated rendering of the tranquil meadow, Oscar called upon the Magic Picture to present the current location of the Shaggy Man…

…and, lo and behold, the picture blurred out, and then sharpened to reveal a gray-haired old man in tattered clothes. Oscar was reminded of homeless, penniless hobos as he looked upon this particular vagabond. The edges of his gray and white outfit…a gray jacket, gray slacks, and a yellowish white dress shirt…were tattered and worn, and an equally worn pair of black shoes were on his bare feet. Despite his overall appearance, he had a determined look on his shaggy face as he spoke words that could not be heard, as the Magic Picture only displayed images. He was, at the moment, standing in what looked to be a cavernous room. Behind him were strange, wild-haired, gray-skinned humanoids that looked as small as munchkins, but had generally unpleasant expressions on their faces.

Oscar remembered hearing descriptions of these subterranean creatures through his training in magic with Glinda. "Hmmm. Nomes, eh?"

Johnny also knew of these creatures as well from his many travels, although he actually ran into a couple of them in the past as well. "Yup. If this is where the Shaggy Man's brother is, they could both be in danger. We've gotta get them out of there!"

"Indeed, although I should note the evident handicap, Johnny." Oscar responded. "Although I am proficient in casting a fair bit of magic, I'm afraid the dominions of the nomes are too far for me to relocate whoever I wanted to send to rescue them."

Johnny nodded slowly, his expression a bit wary. "Annnnd…what manner of favor were you going to ask of _me?_ "

Oscar hoped Betsy and Fyter would not feel overburdened if he had them rescue the Shaggy Man and his brother, in addition to the Pingaree journey, as he spoke. "The very same individuals I'm going to send on your rescue mission also require a means to travel to another troubled island called Pingaree."

"The pearl-fishing community?" Johnny arched an eyebrow. "I wonder if they're still maintaining their trade agreement with the King of Rinkitink!"

The interim ruler furrowed his own brow in curiosity. "Rinkitink?"

"Oh, I grant you he's a bit of a clown by nature, but from what I know of him, he's trying to make up for hurting someone's feelings." Johnny explained. "He's a little guy, too. Broad-bodied and bald. Rides around on a grumpy gray goat."

Oscar nodded. "Does this…Rinkitink…have military resources? Anything that could help stem the tide of invasion?"

Johnny shrugged. "Not sure. I've never been to Rinkitink myself. I've only seen King Rinkitink once. Perhaps whoever you were wanting to send can make the appropriate inquiries?"

"If they can get there, yes." Oscar noted. "Do you still have that amazing means of transportation you created to get Betsy and I to the land of Oz?"

"That would only get you across the desert." Johnny replied. "It isn't sea-worthy...but I think this time, I would be willing to try a different approach. Something more…modifiable. But I wonder if you would first tell me who you were intending to send out?"

"Captain Fyter, the tin soldier of the Gillikin Country…and our mutual friend, Betsy Bobbin."

The handyman's eyes widened upon hearing Betsy's name. After a moment's thought, he nodded. He then fixed a glare upon the Wizard. "Promise me that you will look after her, and help keep her safe, and I will agree to create this means of transportation for them."

"It was my very intention to observe every step of their progress, old friend." The Wizard assured. "Consider my promise officially invoked. How soon can this means of transportation be ready?"

The old handyman produced his enchanted toolbox as he gave the impending job a moment's silent consideration. He then voiced his thoughts. "This may be a tricky job. I'll need to start right away. I'm afraid you'll need to wait a considerable amount of time, by my reckoning."

Oscar lowered his head, sighing. For him to have paid witness to Johnny creating that magnificent sand-boat in so little time, he figured this new job would be just as fast. He sounded dispirited as he made his next inquiry. "How long?"

"You'll have to wait until…" Johnny worked out the estimations in his head. "…sunrise."

The Wizard nodded. "I understand. You might as well…" Oscar stopped, blinking in wide-eyed recognition of what he believed he had heard. "…wait a minute. As in, _tomorrow's_ sunrise?"

Johnny shrugged. "Of course! How long did you _think_ I meant?"

* * *

You might ask, dear reader, of how Jack Pumpkinhead might have reacted to the prolonged absence of the princess Ozma, whom he loved as dearly as any son who loved his mother could be.

As much as he had been told that Ozma could be away for a possibly long period of time, Jack nevertheless felt at great unease and anxiety. Somehow, the pumpkin-headed, wood-bodied humanoid…who had been created by Ozma with the aid of a large and very healthy pumpkin provided by Dorothy Gale…believed that something terrible had happened to his mother.

You might also remember that we had last left Jack alongside a certain patchwork girl named Scraps…a creation of the munchkin called Doctor Pipt…within a field of enchanted poppy flowers, which could put any living person to sleep for as long as they remained within their area of effect. Since the nights in which a similar patchwork girl…who was also called Scraps…helped the Scarecrow to remove an old shoemaker who had temporarily seized control of the throne, those few who happened by these poppy fields by night had been in witness of the straw-stuffed advisor frolicking jovially among these fields alongside both incarnations of the cotton-stuffed patchwork girl.

Since the Scarecrow had become the royal advisor to the princess Ozma, the former ruler of Oz was not as frequent a visitor to the poppy fields as he used to be. Jack, however, being an inorganic creation and as such completely immune to the spell of the enchanted poppies, had spent a lively evening alongside Scraps within the poppies.

This night, however, Jack was deep in a bout of melancholy as he wandered among the poppies, and it was not long before a girlish figure…whose cotton-stuffed body was literally a patchwork quilt…somersaulted and bounded over to him.

Jack's sullen expression did not change as he knelt where he was, his large pumpkin head lowered helplessly. The proudly undignified patchwork girl nevertheless swatted his wooden back…which, like the rest of his body, was wearing a refined and gentlemanly suit…once he was within range.

And, as always, Scraps…who also wore the poppy crown Jack made for her…was in her casually giddy demeanor. One of the things she had taught Jack was the propensity to share in a two-part rhyming game she used to share with the Scarecrow. Scraps would say one part of a potential rhyme, and she would expect the other person to create an appropriate finish.

Hoping to cleanse Jack of his melancholy, she offered her half as she pranced around him. "Hey-hey, Jack! Let's hear a rhyme!"

Jack did not move from his spot, nor did he react to the presence…or the words…of the patchwork girl.

Scraps climbed onto his back and looked at him from behind, holding her head upside down in front of Jack's carved face. " _Hey-hey, Jack! Let's hear a rhyme!_ "

"Something terrible has happened to mother." Jack finally mumbled, quite distressfully. "I just _know_ it."

"Oh, come on, Jack. They haven't been away _that_ long!" Scraps remarked. "Just give it a little more time! I think they'll be back. They've got honey-bunch with them, after all! Smartest Scarecrow in all of Oz. Even smarter than that…that big ol' bug helping the munchkins with that 'College' thingie."

"I've been hearing _terrible_ things about this Jinxland place, Scraps!" Jack lamented. "It's surrounded not only by a gorge, but an impassable mountain range! They could be trapped _forever_ in there!" Jack hung his head again, shaking it in despair. "Oh, dear me…"

"Hey! Jack! Don't you go makin' like a worry-wart on me!" Scraps placed the stuffed gloves of her hands on her hips as she scolded him. "Now finish my rhyme, or…or I'll send you to bed without any rhymes at all!"

Jack rose up at this, still looking fearful. "I hear there are _witches_ there, too! Ozma could be under a _spell,_ Scraps! She may need to be rescued!"

"Jack, they have _Dorothy_ with them! And when it comes to witches, everyone knows Dorothy's at her best when it comes to fighting wicked witches!" Scraps reasoned.

"But...but what if Dorothy fell under a spell too?" Jack countered. "They may _never_ return!"

Scraps then pressed her face against Jack's, who recoiled slightly in his surprise. "Would you want me to go to the Emerald City and find out if anything's wrong, worry-wart?"

"Um…I don't know if you'll get anywhere with that, Scraps." Jack worriedly remarked. "I mean, the Wizard who was placed in charge could be very, very busy with…"

" _Phooey!_ " Scraps interjected, stamping one of the stuffed boots that served as her feet. "You don't know how stubborn I can be, Jacky-Jack! I'm goin' right down to that royal palace and demand some answers! _Harrumph!_ "

Jack lowered his head again, still looking distressed.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Scraps crossed her arms in front of her, and sharply nodded as she repeated herself. " _HARRUMPH!_ "

After another quiet moment, Jack quite unexpectedly wrapped his wooden arms around Scraps, hugging her tightly. " _Please_ be careful, my dear!" Jack whined.

"Uh…sure, Jack." Scraps maintained her smile after Jack released her. The patchwork girl's voice sounded tender as she spoke. "Care for a rhyme before I go?"

Jack shrugged. "Please find mother. I…I _miss_ her so."

With this, the colorful patchwork girl bounded and somersaulted cheerfully away, moving along the road of yellow bricks towards the Emerald City, which even in total darkness still set off a glow, like a magical beacon under a pitch black sky.

Jack dropped back down to his wooden knees, losing himself in his melancholy once again, after Scraps disappeared into the distance.

He wasn't quite so sad this time, however, seeing as how there was one thing he knew for sure about Scraps.

She would indeed be quite stubborn in her resolve.

* * *

The sight of her glittery body and face in the mirror, and the fiery appearance of her glowing hair, gave Betsy a bit of a shock when she rose from her sleep, but she giggled it off in the next moment. She had chosen to remain in her skin-tight, glittery outfit, continuing to enjoy the appearance she once wore for a circus performance at the tin palace. The only element of her outfit that the Queen of Diamonds removed prior to turning in for the night was the white ruff, which she re-fastened around her neck.

Taking a deep breath, she went right for the door to her lovely, spacious quarters in the royal palace…but when she opened it, the tin-plated presence she knew to be Captain Fyter was about to knock upon it. Betsy gasped, once again visibly startled.

"Oh! Betsy! My, you look…quite different these days." Fyter looked over Betsy's glittery appearance.

Betsy had to giggle at his reaction. "Don't y' know? I'm th' Wiz'rd's royal advis'r!"

Fyter nodded. "And it would seem you are the _second_ sight that has amazed me upon my arrival here, old friend."

"Second?" Betsy frowned. "Um…what's th' first?"

"You didn't see it?" Fyter extended a tin-plated hand. "Come with me then, my glittery friend. I look forward to seeing your own amazed reaction."

Streams of illusionary glitter trailed behind Betsy as she followed the new Captain of the gillikin armies through the doors of the royal palace to the open air outside…

…and her eyes grew quite wide, indeed, by the construct that had apparently been created right in front of the palace. Crowds surrounded it, whispering their words of amazement.

What Betsy laid her eyes on was, apparently, a radical cross between a boat and a hot-air balloon…or rather, _two_ matching, hot-air balloons positioned side by side! At the back of this boat, which was made of reinforced wood, were three large propellers. A pair of furnaces within the boat aimed towards each balloon, providing the necessary discharges to elevate this magnificent construct to the skies. Betsy surmised that the three propellers behind it were intended to provide forward movement for the construct.

She was of course reminded of the sand vessel an old friend had made for them to be able to get them to the land of Oz, and Betsy logically wondered if this was another of that very special old man's creations. Or was this something the Wizard's magic had conjured?

A smiling Oscar Diggs made his way over to Betsy upon spotting her awestruck reaction to the construct. "Ahh, good morning, Betsy, my dear." He then gestured proudly to the handyman's amazing-looking creation. "She's quite a sight, isn't she? Just the thing to take you on not one, but _two_ missions, one of them returning the favor which resulted in this glorious transport."

Betsy still looked awestruck even as Oscar spoke. "This is…this is _swell!_ I-I mean…it's _bett'r_ than swell!"

"Indeed so!" Oscar placed a hand on Betsy's shoulder, leading her over to a particular area near the front of the construct as he spoke. "Step on over here, Betsy. We've a little formality to attend to before you leave."

Once she got there, she saw that her mule friend, Hank, was waiting for her there, and she beamed at the sight of her four-legged companion. "Hank! Are you comin' with us?"

"Hold on, Betsy." Hank's low voice advised. "I'll tell ya aft'r this is done."

Betsy then heard the loud tweet of a whistle, followed by the rattle of a drum. The instrument played with rhythmic military precision as the voice of Omby Amby barked his commands. "De-tach-meeent…for-waaard, _march!_ "

The glittery Oklahoma girl angled a curious glance to Oscar, who had a giddy smile on his lips. He merely winked at Betsy in response to her glance.

She then noticed that Omby, who was obviously leading the detachment of soldiers from the resident Emerald Regiment…formed not long after the fall of Ugu the Shoemaker and in the wake of the Emerald City's reconstruction…in their advance, was marching with full military precision towards _her._

Once Omby was right in front of the Queen of Diamonds, the soldier with the green whiskers spoke out loudly, and in bold voice, once again. "De-tach-meeent… _hooold!_ "

Their steps, which were as one, snapped thunderously as they came to a halt.

"Pre-seent… _arms!_ "

Omby, and the detachment soldiers, all saluted, their eyes lingering on an amazed Betsy. Omby then produced a dual-rolled scroll, carefully pulling on both ends to expose the announcement written within…

"By order of his interim majesty, the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, that being Oscar Zoroaster Phaedrig Issac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, formerly of the outer realm of Omaha, Nebraska," Omby cordially began, keeping his voice strong and loud. "this most magnificent construct, capable of accommodating a working crew of two, with enough guest space for an additional thirty-eight, including its Captain, shall henceforth be christened…by order of his interim majesty, the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, that being Oscar Zoroaster Phaedrig Issac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, formerly of the outer realm of Omaha, Nebraska…the O. D. Betsy Bobbin, so named for its henceforth-ordained Captain, Betsy Bobbin, formerly of the outer realm of Oklahoma, proud citizen of the Winkie Country, and the recognized Queen of Diamonds."

Betsy's eyes went as wide as they could go in her amazement as Omby presented her with a glittery, emerald-colored Captain's coat that was exactly her size, with all the rank insignia that went with such a distinction. Once Betsy hesitantly took it, Omby snapped her a salute, and then turned to dismiss the detachment with as much military command precision as he had brought them to her.

The surrounding crowds offered a round of applause as the Wizard stepped over, taking the jacket and opening it up so that Betsy could slip her arms into the sleeves, which she hesitantly did. Betsy was still quite stunned by this gesture as she looked to Oscar, who gave her a full military salute. Fyter, who stood alongside the Wizard, similarly saluted to his glittery friend and companion.

"Quite a snug fit, eh, Captain?" Oscar mused as the crowds continued to marvel at the sight of the _O.D. Betsy Bobbin_. "How does the jacket feel?"

Logically, Betsy was still at a loss for words. It was enough that she had become the Queen of Diamonds again, but now she was made a ship's Captain, to boot! "U-Um…" She was finally able to stammer out. "…'O.D.'?"

"Hmm? Ahh, yes. That stands for 'Oz Dirigible'." Oscar explained. "Our own unique version of the time-honored 'H.M.S.', that being so common to the great sea vessels of the United Kingdom."

"But…I don't know _anythin'_ 'bout how t' run a ship, Mist'r…I mean, great Oz!" Betsy remarked.

"You won't have to, Betsy." Fyter assured, gently placing a tin hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to do all the hard stuff for you. I'll be working the burners whenever we need to fly, and once we're high enough, I'll just go to the pedals that spin those propellers to move us forward. All you need to do is tell me where we're going."

"If y' don't mind havin' someone like me onboard, I'll give you whatev'r help y' need, Cap'n Betsy." Hank assured.

"And if you ask me, every ship captain needs a First Mate." Oscar suggested. "I can see no better individual for such a task than you, Hank."

"Sounds good t' me." Hank replied.

"I guess that makes me your tireless navigator, Captain." Fyter observed. "I'm already looking forward to our missions."

"Oh yeah…speakin' o' which…" Betsy turned to the interim ruler of Oz. "…I know 'bout th' Pingaree stuff, but…what's that second mission?"

"It's a rescue mission." Fyter explained. "We need to go into the dominions of the nomes, and find two individuals. An old vagabond called the Shaggy Man, and his younger brother. The Wizard showed me what they both look like, Captain. I'll let you know if I spot them."

"I'll leave you to make the call, my dear, as to which mission to address first." Oscar advised. "Although I should remind that the invasion of Pingaree could happen at any time. They may very well be under siege already."

"Then we need t' get movin' right away." Betsy proclaimed. Fyter then led Betsy up a carpeted staircase, which allowed her to board the boat portion of the Dirigible. Her ordained First Mate, Hank, followed her up.

"I'll lend you a hand as often as I can, but try to rely on your own skills and instincts, just in case I get called away for audiences!" Oscar called up. "Good luck, Captain! Oh…and don't forget to read the envelope Johnny left for you in the Captain's cabin!"

Betsy nodded in recognition of this as Fyter took his place at the seat between the burners. Remembering Johnny Dooit's instructions on how to pilot the large vessel, he pulled down on two levers, and the two burners fired streaming jets of flame up into the balloons above the vessel, causing the magnificently-designed construct to slowly rise to the skies, much to Betsy's visible amazement.

"WOO- _HOOOO!_ We're _flyin'!_ " Betsy exclaimed as the crowds below them could be heard eliciting their own awestruck sounds as the _O.D. Betsy Bobbin_ ascended to the skies.

Once the Dirigible reached a certain elevation, Fyter released his hold on the levers and rose from his seat. He then turned to Betsy. "Where to first, Captain?"

"Let's do th' most import'nt one first, Fyt'r." Betsy replied, after a moment of thought. "Let's go t' Pingaree."

"Will do, Captain." Fyter nodded as he spoke, and then moved to where the pedal mechanism was. Seating himself at the area, which closely resembled a bicycle, Fyter placed his tin feet upon the pedals and began spinning them around with a speed that far exceeded human capabilities. The vessel finally began drifting forward, the tin soldier never once breaking a sweat, nor exhibiting any manner of fatigue for the simple fact that he was a man made entirely of tin, and not at all bound to the limits human endurance.

"Seein' as how we're jus' gettin' und'rway, why don't y' go look at that lett'r in your cabin, Cap'n?" Hank reminded. "I'll stay out here."

"The door to your cabin is right behind my position, Captain." Fyter added, gesturing to it even as he continued his breakneck pedaling below the torso of the tin soldier.

Betsy nodded and walked past her tin-plated navigator to step through the door and enter the modest cabin, a table of which indeed had a folded piece of parchment paper held in place by a weighted silver wrench. Next to the parchment was a round metal tube the size of her forearm. On each end was a rounded piece of clear glass, one larger than the other.

Settling herself in a seat within the cabin near the table, Betsy picked up the parchment and opened it up, turning the page right side up to begin reading it…

 **Dearest Betsy,**

 **I apologize that I could not remain long enough to see your reaction to my latest creation, but I hope you will find it as useful as the Sand-Skiff as you set forth on the tasks the Wizard of Oz has set before you, including that of my own request that you rescue the Shaggy Man and his brother. They're both good people, Betsy, and I know you're going to like them once you've met them. If you succeed, I think you will agree that they are both worth rescuing.**

 **I have never been to Pingaree, but if they are to be invaded by sea by not one, but two armies from Regos and Coregos(I have never been to either one of those lands either), you must be careful. This vessel has no onboard weapons. It does, however, have plenty of space for anyone from Pingaree that might require a rescue.**

 **I remember telling you that I might see you again rather than you finding me. I have never forgotten this promise and I intend to keep it. Mark my words, Captain Betsy(the whole military thing was my idea, by the way). I** **will** **see you again.**

 **Good luck, and** **please** **be careful.**

 **\- Johnny Dooit**

 **(PS: I made another item for you. The cylindrical item is called a Spyglass. Good for looking at things from a far distance. Pull it at both ends to open it up, and use it well!)**

Betsy smiled wide as she finished reading the letter. Folding it back up, she placed it in a pocket of her Captain's jacket…and placed the Spyglass in another…and turned to the door.

Now when Betsy had initially entered the darkened cabin, she was unable to see what was on the other side of the cabin door, and all of the Oklahoma girl's attention was on what Johnny Dooit had left for her.

When Betsy turned back to the closed door, she finally saw what…or rather, who…was hanging on the other side of it.

"Boo!" Scraps smiled as the glittery Captain's eyes fell upon the patchwork girl.

"Huh? What're _you_ doin' here?" Betsy frowned, her hands going to her waist.

"Whaddya think I'm doing? Stowing away, silly!" Scraps shrugged. "What's a Captain?"

"It means I'm a lead'r." Betsy replied. "They ev'n _named_ this thing aft'r me. Isn't that swell?"

"And…you're gonna go save Ozma, right?" Scraps guessed.

The patchwork girl looked a little shocked when Betsy shook her head. "She's trapped with Dor'thy an' th' ones that went with her t' Jinxland. They're in a big ol' bubble ev'n th' Magic Picture can't see past. We're goin' t' Pingaree t' stop an invasion."

"Captain?" Fyter called over. "Shall we get back underway?"

"We'll be out in a sec'nd, Fyt'r!" Betsy called back.

She then realized, too late, that she had mistakenly said 'we'.

"Well, I kinda-sorta made a promise to Jack that I'd get Ozma back, so…could you turn this big hunk o' junk around and rescue Ozma for me? Hmmm?"

"Sorry, Scraps." Betsy shrugged. "We have t' stay on course, an' we have t' get back und'rway."

The door to the cabin suddenly opened. Fyter had a puzzled look on his face. "Did you say 'we'?"

Betsy sighed. "We're not alone."

"Aww, come on!" Scraps protested. "You're supposed to _cover_ for me!"

Fyter, frowning, closed the door and pulled the patchwork girl off the hook she had placed herself upon. "Well, well, well. Hanging around in the cabin, eh?"

Scraps shrugged, smiling. "You should try it sometime. Oh, wait. You're heavier than me. Never mind."

Fyter smirked. "Two choices, Scraps. The burners, or the pedals."

"Huh? _Wait a minute._ That sounds like _work!_ " Scraps warily remarked. "I'd rather be what I told Betsy I was!"

Betsy rolled her eyes. "If Fyt'r needs help, I think y' should lend a hand, Scraps."

"But I'm a _stowaway!_ " Scraps whined. "Doesn't _every_ ship need one?"

"We would travel much more effectively with a crew of two, Scraps." Fyter reasoned. "And since you might catch fire playing with the burners, I would advise that you take the pedals."

"It's only when we need t' move forward, Scraps." Betsy added. "It's not like th' work is gonna tire you out, y' know. You're a patchwork girl."

"I know, I know, but _still…_ " Scraps stopped, seeing the expressions on the faces of both Fyter and Betsy. "…oh, alright. Show me the pedal thingie."

Betsy smiled. "Thanks, Scraps. C'mon. I'll show you what t' do."

It did not take long at all for Betsy to show the patchwork girl how to work the pedals, and once Fyter had re-positioned himself between the burners, the _O.C. Betsy Bobbin_ resumed its progress toward the island of Pingaree.


	6. VI: Shock and Awe

**VI: Shock and Awe**

"She's a _what?_ "

The Lion could hardly believe his furry ears as Shade told him what had happened to Dorothy Gale. The Scarecrow looked similarly aghast as he, Trot, Pon, and the other assembled members of the Legion of Courage listened to the panther's report.

"Dear me…" The Scarecrow's head lowered with regret. "…that's my fault. I should never have told her to leave, but…I didn't want her to get hurt in that fight."

Rouse shrugged. "She killed two witches, didn't she? What makes you think she can't handle herself?"

"Their deaths were circumstantial, Rouse." The Scarecrow quickly corrected. "Dorothy just happened to be in the house that crushed one witch, and she had no idea that water would melt the other when she saved my life by putting out that fire on my arm."

Rouse looked a little surprised to hear this. "So she _isn't_ a witch?"

Bo rolled her eyes in disbelief. "She never _was_ one! When's the last time you saw Dorothy casting a spell? _Never!_ It was a _tornado_ that sent her house into the skies!"

"Well, she may not be a witch…" Brocius thoughtfully noted. "…but she's no longer human, either." He then turned to the Lion, who was already deep in thought. "We need to get her away from the witches, commander. She is, after all, an honorary member of our Legion."

"Ya darn right, she is!" The Lion emphatically responded. "An' I'd feel a lot better if she were back among us. Gettin' Dorothy away from those witches has ta be priority one!"

Ali, however, looked skeptical about this. "Uh…I'm not sure that's a strategically wise idea…"

" _Priority one,_ Ali!" The Lion got in the unicorn's face as he spoke these words, practically growling them in emphasis. He then turned to the others with a look of determination. "I figure we try an' draw her out somehow, an' then grab 'er and bring 'er back here."

"May not be easy as dat, boss." Koup warily remarked. "Not wit de collar 'round her neck. Once dey had it round her neck, Doro'ty follow dem like a pet."

Bo turned to the Lion. "Commander…I realize you have a great deal of respect for Dorothy Gale. We _all_ do. But we may need to knock her out before we get her away from them."

The Scarecrow placed a stuffed hand on the Lion's shoulder, seeing his troubled expression in reaction to Bo's words. "I never like the idea of hurting Dorothy either, but…Bo's right, Lion. Once Dorothy is knocked out, we'll get that collar off of her. I'm sure she won't hold it against you once we explain it all to her. You know as well as I do how understanding she can be."

"If it would make you feel any better, sir…" Bo reasoned, holding her staff out in emphasis of her suggestion. "…I should be able to drop her without causing any real damage."

"The rest of us can fend off the witches." Brocius added.

"We…we may not need to…knock her out at all." Pon then offered, the old man holding up the green pearl with a shaky hand. "Now that we know what…what _this_ pearl does."

"Oooh! Dat da gem dat make you go _teency!_ " Brawn noted.

Ali nodded. "If we can shrink her, we can put Dorothy in the bag, tie it shut, pass it to someone, and get her to safety. We'll need someone fast enough to get her to safety."

Koup snapped his bat wings out loudly, holding his head high, in emphasis of his want for the job.

"Or…someone who can fly her out, obviously." Ali added.

"Wait a minute." Rouse raised a paw in restraint. "Are we gonna _keep_ her small?" She turned to Pon. "Do you know how to reverse the effect?

All eyes turned to the old man, who now had a more ponderous expression. "I…I'm not sure. I mean…I've never _used_ it."

Bo held a paw, the padded palm facing the sky, out to Pon. "May I?"

The old man nodded, handing it over to her. "Just…be careful."

The panda's eyes then angled to Brawn, a devious expression on her face. The bear just smiled innocently back at her.

Bo grinned, the pearl still in her open paw, as a thought occurred to her…

…but the pearl was suddenly swiped away by a black-striped orange paw! Leaping away from a surprised-looking Bo, Rouse gripped the pearl, and shot her other paw out towards the discipline officer. " _Shrink!_ " She called out, grinning.

To Bo's complete shock, the panda quickly diminished in size!

"HEY!" Bo angrily cried out.

The pitch of her voice sounded a bit high in nature as Bo shrank to the height of Rouse's waist. Koup and Rouse began laughing uproariously. The Lion tried to keep from guffawing, despite himself.

Brocius shook his head, rolling his eyes, over Rouse's sneaky move. Shade tried to keep from lapsing into a giggle fit. Pon and Ali looked a little more concerned, and even Bo looked a little worried as she assessed her current size.

Trot, however, frowned. She had been bullied herself, after all, and became a monkey as a result of it. "Hey, come on! Stop laughing!" Trot protested. "Okay, so we know it can shrink someone. Let's get her normal size back now."

" _If_ we can get her normal size back." Ali warily noted.

"Well…if that guy who had the bag knew about what those stones could do, he might have tested it on himself." Shade surmised. "Unless he was a tall guy to begin with."

Pon shook his head. "He was _never_ very tall."

Trot held her monkey hand out to Rouse. "May I have it, please?"

The tigress sighed. "Oh, lighten up, kid. Look…you don't know what Bo here put us through. She deserved that."

"Rouse…" The tone of the Lion's voice was now quite firm and serious. "…give dat pearl to Trot. Dat's an order."

After a tense moment, Rouse nodded. "Yes, sir." The tigress then complied, her clawed paw tossing the pearl to Trot, who grabbed it.

The monkey girl then turned to Bo, grasping the pearl while her other simian hand extended to the diminished discipline officer. "Uh… _grow._ "

Much to Bo's relief, her body did just that, her former size eventually restored.

The rest of the group looked more relieved now as the Scarecrow, Pon, and the Lion smiled to the monkey girl…

…who placed both her hands curiously over the pearl. " _Shrink._ "

Confirming her suspicions, Trot herself diminished in size, much to the surprise of the others. The monkey girl did the opposite, holding the pearl with both hands, and restored her normal size.

"Great work, Trot!" The Scarecrow placed a hand on the monkey girl's furry shoulder as Trot smiled back at the straw-stuffed advisor.

"You are one brave girl." Pon observed, smiling.

The Lion stepped over to the monkey. "Trot…in the unlikely event dat ya can't change back, we're inductin' ya into da Legion o' Courage for sure."

"We make Trot _honorary_ membah udda-wise?" Koup offered.

Bo smiled to the monkey girl. "As far as I'm concerned, she already is."

"Well! Now that we have a plan, we just need someone to draw the witches out." Shade noted.

"I'll do that." Trot shrugged. "I think they're still looking for me, after all."

"Dey be _spellcastin'_ , Trot." Koup warned, holding a simian finger to her in emphasis. "I not be losin' ya ta dat."

"But you've been teaching me monkey things, Koup. Last night, this morning…" Trot reasoned. "…I should be okay. I've got the swinging and the jumping and the climbing thing down, don't I?"

Koup nodded. "Dat ya have, but dat not be helpin' ya when dey _spellin'_ on ya."

"We won't give them the chance, Koup." Rouse assured, rubbing her paws together in anticipation. "We're gonna keep those little ladies _real_ busy."

"Try to be a little more careful this time, Rouse." Bo warily noted. "We almost lost you as an ally in that last fight."

"All the more reason for me to give 'em a whole _world_ of hurt this time." Rouse replied.

"Just as long as ya remember dat dis is a _diversion,_ kid." The Lion reminded, raising a paw in emphasis. "Don't you go hurtin' anyone too bad. Dat's an order. Once we've got Dorothy, we're fallin' back. Dat means you too."

Rouse sighed irritably. "Yes, sir."

"Don't worry, Rouse." The Scarecrow assured. "Once we've got Dorothy, our next targets will be those witches."

"Pon?" Biff's eyes were on the old man, who was staring at one of the unidentified pearls, which he now had in his wrinkled hands. "Are you in another plane of comprehension? I've had that look myself."

Visions of past occasions, flirtatious and otherwise, spent with the young princess he could not help but be interested in as he grew up filled the old man's head as he continued to stare at the glittering, platinum-colored pearl, which otherwise looked dull and lifeless in the hands of Goog L'Goo.

"Gloria…" Pon whispered, his eyes watering up. "M…my dear, s-sweet Gloria…I…I don't deserve you…I n-never have…" His words collapsed into a sob as he spoke. "I'm so sorry…this is all _m-my fault…_ "

The Scarecrow gently placed a stuffed hand on Pon's shoulder. He spoke tenderly as he looked upon the lamenting old man. "What do you mean, Pon? How is _any_ of this your fault?"

"If…if I hadn't…fallen in love with her…" Pon responded, his voice shaking in his regretful sorrow. "…none of th-this would be happening!"

"Now _wait a minute,_ Pon." The Lion moved closer to the former gardener's boy. "We'll not hear any a' dat self-regret stuff. Ya gotta pull yourself ta-gedda, pal. Get a good grip on dat blue rock o' yours, an' _fight_ for dat Gloria girlie! Like ya did for us before! Dat was _beautiful!_ Bang, bang, bang! _Rrruff!_ " He swung his paws, both of them curled into fists, in emphasis. "Hey, ya really took da fight outta dat kid we took dat bag from, too!"

"You sure did, Pon." Shade added. "I remember how he looked when you came out swinging. He was scared out of his mind."

"We be gettin' ya Gloria back, Pon, me brudda." Koup assured. "Don'cha worry."

"We sure will, Pon." Trot offered. "Safe and sound. Not a scratch on her."

"But I…I'm just a…a gardener's boy." Pon whined. "She's royalty. I…I should never have…"

"It's cosmic, Pon." Biff suddenly interjected.

Bo sighed loudly at this. "Oh, great. Here we go…"

Pon, however, looked curious as he turned his quivering head to the rhino. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"How you feel about her. It's cosmic." The horned rhino replied. "You said you fell in love with her, right? From the moment you saw her?"

"Y-yes?"

"You didn't say a word." Biff surmised. "Love at first sight, right? Do you think she felt the same way about you? Was she always nice to you whenever you saw each other? Were you both happy?"

Pon lowered his head, but nodded as he did.

"Then yours is a cosmic kind of love." Biff responded. "Doesn't happen very often, but it does."

The Scarecrow nodded emphatically, smiling, at this particular observation. "Star-crossed lovers. I know just what Biff is getting at."

"Don't deny it, Pon. Don't say you're not worthy of her, either." Biff advised, his tone tender and consoling. "If you're always happy together, then there's got to be love, whether you both feel it or not. It's just a natural attraction. The Gloria we're dealing with now? That's not her. That's a spell, and I've got a hunch that you'd be the only one who can break that spell, so don't you go giving up on us. It's in the stars, Pon. It's cosmic."

Even Bo had to agree with this logic as she turned her head to Biff, an expression of solemn respect on her furry face.

"Does that pearl mean anything to you, Pon?" Trot asked, her eyes curiously lingering on the beautiful pearl Pon held.

"A...a game." The old man replied, recollecting happier times. "Whoever had this…" He indicated the pearl. "…had t-to find…the one who gave it to you. We…we passed this…back and forth so many times."

"Huh." Rouse mused. "Like a game of 'Tag'."

"S…so many…good memories…" Pon's eyes went back to the pearl, speaking to himself thoughtfully. "…worth fighting for…"

After a quiet, thoughtful moment, Pon wiped the tears from his wrinkled face, and then placed the pearl into a pocket. He then turned to the Lion, pulling the blue pearl from another pocket and holding it with a tight, determined grip.

Pon gently placed his other hand on the leonine monarch's furry shoulder. "Let's go get your friend away from those witches."

* * *

The kind old ruler's name was Kitticut, and he ruled the humble people of the island of Pingaree alongside his wife, Garee. They were as contented a King and a Queen as the people they administered to, and theirs was the responsibility of upholding the trade agreements they had established over time with other nearby islands.

King Kitticut was also the bearer of a long-held boon from the Mermaid Kingdoms under Queen Aquareine and her husband, the mighty sea serpent known as King Anko. So long as the seafaring people of Pingareee restricted their coastline activities to pearl-fishing, which was primarily done with unique pearl rakes pulled along the sands, the mermaids would never find issue with Pingaree's mostly-benign civilization.

Kitticut's father, the former King of Pingaree, was the first to establish this agreement with King Anko, and while it was difficult at first for the people of Pingaree to adjust beyond more common fishing practices that the mermaids frequently took issue with, travelers to other lands…within the nonestic isles, of course…returned to Pingaree to present alternate methods of developing sustenance aside from the seafood the people had been so used to. Seeds which produced healthy meatstalk plants. More conventional forms of agricultural produce became commonplace on the island, and a large farming plot developed alongside the fishing villages along the island's coastline.

Out of gratitude for the developed understanding of the people of Pingaree, it was Queen Aquareine who felt that a reward was necessary. A white pearl capable of conferring great wisdom to its bearer was offered by the Queen. The King also presented a pearl unto Kitticut's father, and this was the blue pearl that granted immense strength. Kitticut's father had also risked his life to rescue the Queen in a previous incident relating to the insidious and conspiratorial designs of the evil undersea sorcerer called Zog, and so Aquareine presented a third pearl…pink in color, which made its bearer invulnerable to any and all harm…in overdue gratitude for his selfless actions.

When Kitticut inherited the throne, so did he become the bearer of the three pearls of power, and it was with these three pearls that he was able to single-handedly hold back an invasion attempt by the envious warriors of Regos, and then a similar attempt by the more organized soldiers of Coregos weeks later. Amazed by the King's power, Kitticut was praised for his actions by his people, and feared by those he had defeated.

Although their defeat did result in an alliance between the leaders of both lands…King Gos of Regos, and Queen Cor of Coregos…in their mutual desire for vengeance.

But while the less intelligent King Gos felt a second attempt was unwise for the obvious reasons, Queen Cor had a far more cunning plan in mind. It was one that required time to develop for the diplomatic strategies that needed to be laid down.

She knew, for one thing, that King Kitticut was the kind of leader who consciously saw to the contentedness of his people. So long as they were happy, he was happy. If there were any problems, the King would address them as swiftly as possible so everyone could be happy with him again.

Disguising herself as a Pingaree villager, it was Queen Cor herself who began making use of a most potent diplomatic weapon…rumors…in her attempt to sow the seeds of distrust in the rule of King Kitticut. For a king to have defeated not one, but two invading armies single-handedly, could the king truly be trusted to continue to wield such power? Would he begin ruling with an iron fist, so to speak? Were there dark times ahead for the people of Pingaree?

Although she tried to ferment these rumors discreetly, King Kitticut nevertheless discovered and confronted the source of these rumors. Fortunately, Queen Cor's disguise was the result of potion magic cultivated by one of her advisors, and so the King never suspected that this woman was in fact Queen Cor herself.

Kitticut wanted very much to convince his people that he would never turn on them for any reason, although he knew this villager was right in the sense that a display of great power…such as that which he used to defeat two invading countries single-handedly…could ferment distrust. The villager suggested that the King open up diplomatic associations with at least one of the nations…and she logically suggested Coregos for their more civilized culture…as a gesture of good faith.

As Queen Cor, she agreed to Kitticut's offer, but there was a caveat. In her time spent under the disguise of a villager, it was understood that discovered pearls of a more unusual nature...those which were discovered to have magical properties…were to be surrendered to the King. Queen Cor guaranteed that she would not only drop any future invasion plans, but she would also agree to protect Pingaree if Regos ever attempted another siege of the island in discreet exchange for one of these special pearls.

As much as Kitticut had wanted to consult the white pearl for advice, he felt that he did not want to keep relying on their power to solve all of his problems, deferring their use to only the most dire of emergencies. As Cor's offer sounded fairly reasonable, he agreed. He was cautious, however, as to which of the few special pearls he was willing to surrender. There was, of course, no way Kitticut would surrender his father's three pearls, choosing to hide them away in a secret floor compartment instead.

Before Kitticut was to make his first offering…the pearl which provided seafood on request…to Queen Cor, it was discovered that the bag in which he kept the special pearls, and other unusual stones discovered during pearl-fishing attempts, was gone! The discovery of pearls with magical properties was always a rarity, so it was not as if they could discover new ones overnight so Kitticut could honor his end of the bargan, and he suspected that his bag was among the many items stolen from the island by a band of cursed pirates who had discreetly raided the island one late evening. There was no sign of their vessel, the Frigate known as the _Shivery Timbers_ , the following morning.

It was this theft…and the even more horrifying discovery that one of his father's three heirlooms, the blue pearl, was also missing…that made Kitticut very, very nervous. He was, after all, to present his promised special pearl to Queen Cor by nightfall. With the announcing of the arrival of a boat from another land upon the shores, Kitticut feared that Cor had decided to come sooner for her prize.

However, Queen Garee assured her worried husband that the boat's point of origin was Gilgad, that being the capital of the land of Rinkitink, and that the land's ever-jovial King was onboard.

And as much as he usually enjoyed King Rinkitink's company, Kitticut truthfully did not wish to see the portly monarch at the moment. There was the chance, however, that this was a business-related call, given that a trade agreement was maintained between Pingaree and Rinkitink.

As usual, the ever-giggling Rinkitink rode up on the back of the furry goat who was his steed. As Kitticut watched his approach from a high balcony in his palace, it seemed as if he were muttering something which, as always, had the round-bodied monarch laughing hysterically. Despite the fact that he was sharing this obvious bit of mirth with his steed, the goat remained as stone-faced as he had always been in past visits to Pingaree, and for reasons this goat…whose name was Bilbil…had yet to reveal.

Rinkitink threw his hands out to the sides, beaming a wide smile, as the rotund visitor entered the throne room with the goat trotting in beside him. "Well, well! Greetings and good tidings, my dear Kitticut!" His voice was high and quite jolly as he spoke. "What has it been, a week since we last engaged in business? I remember telling you that my next visit would be more of a social call, and I have permitted myself…uh, well, more like _demanded_ of myself, _hee hee_ …the luxury of a temporary escape to the always-scenic and humble Pingaree landscape! Ho ho! At your generous permission, of course!"

Kitticut managed a weak but evident smile. "Well…I'm afraid you have caught me at a bad time, old friend."

"That's what you said the last time we were here." Bilbil glumly remarked. "Is there _ever_ going to be a day when we can catch you at a _good_ time? Knowing our luck with you, probably not."

"Now, now, Bilbil…perhaps we can turn the good man's frown upside down, eh? Even if it is sadly impossible for _some_ people to reverse their perpetual melancholy…" He hinted at the goat in emphasis of his point as he spoke. "…regardless of the nature of the local tidings, so to speak."

Kitticut lowered his head. "I'm not a very good man, King Rinkitink. I know you keep telling me otherwise, but…"

" _King Rinkitink!_ " The young boy raced forward, smiling at the sight of the jovial ruler, and wrapped his arms around the surprised visitor's waist. "I thought I heard your voice. It's great to see you again!"

"Indeed!" Rinkitink smiled down at the regally-attired boy in the velvet beret as he spoke. "As always, you're quite the handsome young prince, Inga! May need to fortify your door a little to keep all the young Pingaree ladies at arm's length, eh? Ho ho ho hooo!"

Inga shrugged bashfully as Rinkitink laughed. He then turned to the sour-looking goat. "Hi, Bilbil! It's good to see you too!"

The goat nodded once with respect. "Prince Inga." The smiling boy then began running a hand over his shaggy body, the goat's fur of which felt quite nice.

Bilbil, however, didn't find this particular gesture appealing. "Please don't do that."

Inga pulled his hand away. "Sorry…kinda forgot. But you never told me why."

"It's a…it's a personal thing, your highness." Bilbil replied.

"Alas, even I could not get whatever personal story he keeps to himself out of him, my boy." Rinkitink reminded. "Perhaps in time, those goat lips of his will loosen a bit."

"Fat chance." Bilbil shot back.

Rinkitink put one arm around Kitticut and the other around Inga as he led them to the nearby balcony area. "But enough about me and my perpetually surly friend." He turned his head to the older man. "Why the long face _this_ time, hmmm?"

Kitticut sighed. "It's complicated. It's also nothing I wish to discuss while the Prince is with us."

"You shouldn't be doing it in the first place, father." Inga quite surprisingly remarked. "Aren't we supposed to turn over any and all special pearls we find to the mermaids?"

"Well…they don't know exactly how many we managed to find, son." Kitticut reasoned. He then looked to Rinkitink. "Obviously, my wife's lips are so much more loose than your goat's."

"Your son stands poised to inherit your royal status, old friend." Rinkitink noted. "It is no bad thing to keep Inga as well-informed as Garee. You might be surprised as to the kind of useful advice he might offer in return, after all."

Inga sighed. "Knowing _my_ parents, I'll probably get the old 'he's just a boy' excuse."

Kitticut smiled, placing a hand gently on his son's shoulder. "It's only because we're trying to keep you safe from our personal concerns. After all…being the ruler of a land is not the easiest job in the world, you know."

"It can be lots of _fun,_ though! Just ask my court jester!" Rinkitink mused aloud, lapsing into another round of laughter that made his round belly jiggle amusingly.

"I thought you _were_ the court jester." Bilbil churlishly mused.

The trio suddenly heard a sharp whooshing noise, followed by a violent explosion coming from the docks. The only docked ship in the Pingaree harbor had suddenly been crippled by a terrible impact as Kitticut, Rinkitink, and Inga gazed in horror.

Before they could react, yet another whooshing sound…this one headed in _their_ direction, but angled above them…preceded yet another violent and loud explosion which collapsed the ceiling from above them! Rinkitink instinctively grabbed Inga and pulled him back. Bilbil was also able to move out of the way of the collapse, which had effectively separated the trio from Inga's father!

"FATHER!" Inga called out as screams could be heard outside, along with other whooshes Kitticut now realized were part of a barrage of cannon fire. "Are you alright?"

"Get out of here! Take the pearls!" Kitticut screamed, relieved to hear that his son…his heir…was still alive. "Find the pearls and go! _Get out of Pingaree!_ "

Another sharp whoosh, followed by an explosion and a violent tremor which sent Rinkitink and Inga to the ground, followed. While Inga was on the ground, he began crawling around the throne room floor, feeling along the tiles even as the salvos continued outside.

Fortunately, he was able to find the floor tile that pushed in…although his hand was nearly crushed by a portion of the ceiling above them…and Inga quickly grabbed the two enchanted pearls. Gripping them both in his left hand, the prince offered a hand to Rinkitink. "Come on! We have to get out of here! _Follow me!_ "

"Woooh! Logically!" Rinkitink was able to get himself off the ground.

With the wisdom of the white pearl in his hand, he led Rinkitink and Bilbil along a path which safely…and quite amazingly…allowed the trio to leave the building without getting hurt at all. Inga knew just when to stop so that they would not be crushed by falling debris, and when to move forward, and where to climb down whenever their forward progress was inescapably halted.

Once they were safely outside, they saw a fleet of ships begin to sail into the still-intact docks. There was fighting around them as villagers attempted to use their pearl-rakes against the more well-trained and brutal Regos warriors. Not one villager was able to hold his or her own against the more well-armed and battle-hardened marauders.

Inga then gasped as he grabbed Rinkitink's outfit, and grasped a handful of Bilbil's fur, pulling them in as he went to a knee and ducked his head. Bilbil let out an angry bleat while Rinkitink gasped in surprise.

The next cannon shot…and the whoosh that preceded it…had apparently been aimed at _them._

The cannon shot, however, impacted an unseen force field, leaving the trio completely unharmed!

Inga knew that if they stayed where they were, they would be caught, invincibility or not. "Follow me! We've gotta move!"

Spears were hurled in their direction during the chaos of the moment, but they never stopped. A soldier who tried to get in front of them found himself subjected to a _very_ strong headbutt from Bilbil that knocked the Regos warrior senseless.

Fortunately, and no doubt thanks to the wisdom being given to him by the white pearl, Inga and his friends were able to elude their pursuers, finding safety in an abandoned farmhouse. They remained hidden until Inga judged their situation safe enough to relax for a bit.

In that moment, Rinkitink once again began to laugh heartily. "That was _amaaazing!_ Truly, those pearls of your father's have demonstrated their worth! Ho ho hoooo!"

"We have to get to your boat." Inga looked to the visiting King. "You need to get us out of here."

"Alas, I did see where my boat was...but I'm afraid it's nothing more than a smouldering wreck, your highness." Rinkitink replied.

"Maybe we can commandeer one of _their_ boats?" Bilbil suggested.

Rinkitink arched an eyebrow. "Do any of us know how to _sail?_ We need a full crew, do we not?"

"When they see that they can't hurt Inga," Bilbil responded. "I think we could convince them to sail us anywhere we want."

Inga nodded, the white pearl in his hand finding the notion entirely feasible. "It's worth a try."

* * *

It was through Oscar's crafty use of the Magic Picture that he was able to pick up on important texts he believed Glinda to possess in her palace that was one of the reasons the Wizard had relocated to the Good Witch's palace to begin with. As they knew the old man to be an ally, the handmaidens did not prevent his entry, but rather assisted him in procuring the books he needed to look at.

Using the room where the crystal ball that had once been used by the Wicked Witch of the West had been relocated, he placed the texts upon the nearby table and began reading up on the societies and the histories of Regos and Coregos, particularly looking for anything that might help him help Betsy.

Oscar initially learned that Regos and Coregos were lands that continually tried to compete with one another. Practically a textbook case of one-upmanship, defined purely by aggression. The people of Regos, predictably, were guided by raw savagery, while the people of Coregos were a little more disciplined.

On not one, not two, but _seven_ occasions did the aggression between Regos and Coregos devolve into warfare. Oscar found it particularly intriguing that each of these wars were fought for reasons relating to the biblical deadly sins of man. A war over food resources defined gluttony. The Wizard perceived greed to be the reason for what was called the war of riches. The ominously-titled "flesh war" he had initially perceived to be gluttony-related, but seeing the details had Oscar conclude that it was more of an envy-based conflict, as it dealt with the development of slave labor and slave tenets between each of the lands. None of the texts mentioned anything about the pink-skinned slaves, so Oscar had to conclude that this was a recent development in Coregos culture.

Sloth? The war of monotony, after which sea travel had been developed by both lands. Lust? A "duel war", after which King Gos and Queen Cor actually began to develop an affection for each other even as they continued their violent conflicts. Pride? The very first declaration of war between Regos and Coregos, which had been referred to by Coregos soldiers as the war of pride. Oscar was reminded of Julius Caesar when he saw one Coregos soldier's perspective on the sole reason for the war of pride: _we met, we hated, we fought._

Wrath turned out to be the final war between the two lands. The war for revenge…otherwise known as the second war of pride…was waged by Regos over their loss to Coregos in the first pride war. One thing Oscar found strange about the end of all seven wars was that none of them dealt with any notion of invasion. Once the wars ended, both sides fell back to their own countries. The only things gained and lost were any provisions the two lands fought over. With the flesh war, it was slave labor. The food war? Food. The war of riches? Money. It should be noted that Regos had shown the beginnings of a more refined culture prior to the start of the war of riches. When Regos lost this war, they devolved back into their more primitive savagery.

The war for revenge, however, was contrary to the first pride war for the fact that it was the shortest of all of their seven wars. Beyond the first couple of battles, Queen Cor had decided to personally attempt an assassination of King Gos, but he discovered her approach and overpowered her with his raw strength. It was the first time, too, that both rulers had been that close to each other, physically. With the both of them having previously acknowledged respect for their mutual devotion to raw aggression, the end result of this confrontation shocked both sides when they finally made the knowledge public.

They had fallen in love.

Apparently, they shared a mutual desire for conquest. They wanted the weak to grovel at their feet, and the strong to stand alongside them as they took anything and everything around them by force, and any who would not surrender would be crushed beneath their bootheels.

Oscar read that Regos had no interest whatsoever in magic, finding the practices to be a wasteful and vulgar advantage, whereas Queen Cor invited aggressive applications of sorcery, so long as it never eclipsed the needs of the united lands. Any Coregos spellcaster found to be practicing a level of magic which could potentially threaten either one of the societies as a whole, if not both societies at once, was to be put to death, and since the lands of Regos and Coregos were far beyond the fairy enchantment that made it largely impossible for people in the land of Oz to die, death was naturally a common occurrence in the mutually violent societies of Regos and Coregos.

Another text went back even farther in their history, to a moment which defined their need for aggression…

…and it was here that Oscar flashed a most devious grin.

He had finally found someone, steeped in their old legends, for Betsy to quite capably emulate.

Turning his attention to the crystal ball, the Wizard resumed his observation of Betsy's experiences.

* * *

"Stop th' ship here." Betsy called out to Scraps, who ended her breakneck pedaling, drifting the ship to a full stop. Betsy had spotted the rising smoke on the horizon first, and the glittery captain pulled a cylindrical object out of a pocket once the ship stopped.

Scraps looked curious over this item. "What's that you have there, Betsy-boo?"

"It's called a spyglass." Betsy replied, pulling both ends of the item in opposite directions, effectively extending its length. "It was in th' cabin next to th' note. I should be able t' see things goin' on down there from here."

"Ahh, quite handy indeed." Fyter observed as Betsy put the smaller end of the Spyglass to her right eye, closing her left eye as she aimed the larger end towards Pingaree far below. Hank clopped over next to Betsy as she looked through the glass.

The glittery Captain sighed. "We're too late, Hank. Those are ships from Regos an' Coregos. I see th' King an' Queen down there. They're on their knees with the oth'rs."

"Oh well." Scraps remarked. "Can we go rescue Ozma now?"

"Scraps. Shhh." Fyter shot back. "Let the Captain think."

"What're your thoughts, Cap'n?" Hank asked.

"I wish there was a way we could hear what they're _sayin'_ down there." Betsy replied, still gazing upon the kneeling prisoners, who were apparently being forced to listen to the gloating of a larger Regos warrior pacing in front of them. "It looks like some Regos big shot is talkin' tough or somethin'."

"Heh…'we've conquered you', 'you have no chance of escape', blah, blah, blah." Fyter mused. "Just a lot of evil genius balderdash."

"Typical of a bully with the upp'r hand." Hank responded as he nodded in agreement.

"We should go up against an evil idiot sometime." Scraps mused. "Maybe Ozma is dealing with one. Let's go help her."

Betsy finally brought the Spyglass down, snapping it shut as she did and placing it back in the pocket of her jacket. She was still deep in thought when she turned to face her shipmates.

After a moment, she looked to Fyter. "Didn't th' Wiz'rd of Oz come in a balloon when he first came there?"

Fyter nodded. "He did. Why?"

"I jus' wond'r if there have ev'r been any oth'r balloons, or flyin' machines like this one, since then." Betsy wondered aloud.

"I would think this is one of a kind." Hank guessed. "I haven't seen anythin' like it. Not ev'n back where _we_ came from, Cap'n."

Fyter began to have an idea as to what the glittery Captain might be getting at. "You want to see how they react to the appearance of this vessel, don't you? That's risky, Captain. Especially if their ships are armed, and our ship is not."

"I saw those guns, though. They're side-firin'." Betsy countered. "They don't fire _up._ "

Fyter slowly nodded. "Indeed. If we stayed above them, we _might_ be able to fire a shot of our own. A shot of intimidation."

"Hmmm." Scraps now had a thoughtful expression. "That gives me an idea…"

"If it has anythin' t' do with Ozma, Scraps…" Hank interjected. "…it needs t' wait."

"HAH!" Scraps raised a cotton-stuffed index finger towards the mule. "This _isn't_ about Ozma! Pooh on you!"

All heads turned to Scraps now, in their shared curiosity.

"Oh, want me to tell you, eh?" Scraps playfully remarked. "Tell ya what…let's turn this boat around and go find Ozm…OK! OK! I'll TELL YOU! Put that silly sword away, Fyter!"

* * *

You might be wondering, dear reader, just how many witches there are who serve Blinkie in Jinxland.

Variously competent enough in witchcraft to be a potent threat, while others…most of them, in fact…being mere apprentices in development of their magical potency, there were thirteen of these similarly-attired witches…Blinkie included…which by the standards of witches constituted a full coven. Any more than thirteen was considered excessive.

Six of these witches…Blinkie, Sima, and Cheralyn included…were among the competent ones(the other three being Ness, Marge, and Pippa), while the other seven were the apprentices. As such, the latter could capably assist in the performance of group-based witchcraft rituals, but aside from various proficiencies in specific spells, they were all at least fluent in most, if not all, of the rudimentary practices known as cantrip magic, which were mostly utilitarian spells(ie. conjuring light sources, fixing broken glass, inflicting temporary forgetfulness(or in Trot's case, stupidity)), many of them serving as the prerequisite for more potent magic. All of them wore red robes, similar to what Blinkie wore, and their one-eyed mistress had the apprentices wear their robes in a manner that made them all look the same, with their headscarves concealing all but their faces, which was the only way you could tell them apart.

When Pon was captured by these witches, and it should be noted that he was still a young boy when he was apprehended, he did a lot of listening during his captivity, and he was able to learn this much prior to the casting of the ritual that sapped the gardener's boy of his youth and exchanged it with the crippling old age of the wealthy courtier called Googly-goo.

He had shared these things regarding the witches as Trot, the Lion, the Scarecrow, and the members of the Legion of Courage put their heads together to figure out a way to rescue Dorothy. Ali came to the conclusion that for a foolproof extraction, subduing the spread-out apprentices was necessary.

The anthropomorphic dog…who used to be a very human girl from Kansas…was always close to Blinkie, and the one-eyed former student of the late Wicked Witch of the West, in her pride over Dorothy's defeat, decided to inflict another layer of humiliation upon her furry pet as she dispatched her fellow witches to continue their hunt for Trot.

Clasping a fortified chain to Dorothy's collar, Blinkie decided to take her new pet for a walk.

It was important, after all, to get the recipient of her revenge used to moving around on four legs, rather than two. The head witch, however, resolved to stay close to her eight-sided house, choosing…for the moment…to walk Dorothy in a circle around the outer edge of the house rather than stray far from it.

In her zeal to humiliate Dorothy, however, she was unaware of the critical mistake she was making in diverting her attention from the apprentices, who were continuing their hunt for Trot…

* * *

 **TASIA**

Potent in the casting of cantrips, this apprentice aspired to a mastery of cold-based effects, and even in the hottest climate, she could conjure a perfectly-packed snowball out of thin air and have it last long enough to strike someone when thrown.

Tasia could even lower the temperature of a closed room. She had been practicing, however, in extending this range beyond a single room.

Her friend among the other apprentices was Blaise, who contrarily aspired to elemental witchcraft dealing with heat and fire. It was believed, by the other apprentices, that these two would be at odds with each other in the long run. That they would become bitter enemies. Both Tasia and Blaise repeatedly denied this, though.

Tasia was the first to spot the very monkey that they had been hunting for. She was swinging about idly a distance away. A malevolent smile now played on Tasia's lips as she conjured a ball of hard ice. One which would guide itself to the former girl's head and knock her out completely with the force of the ice ball's blow.

But this ice ball dropped from her hand and quickly melted away once a hard staff, held by a panda's paw, struck her own head from behind. It was a hard shot that knocked the unaware apprentice out completely.

One down, Bo mused to herself, as she looked upon the unconscious witch with a satisfied smile.

* * *

 **DAHLIA**

Perhaps the darkest of all the apprentices for the fact that she always wore black, and had a particularly morbid and gaunt facial appearance, Blinkie had yet to honor her promise to begin instructing the pale-skinned young witch in the necromantic arts, which was essentially having power over the dead.

She was in the process of mastering her first real necromantic enchantment…conjuring a skeleton…in developing this power. Unbeknownst to this apprentice, however, Blinkie had considered necromancy to be a forbidden art, and conjuring skeletons was about the only thing the one-eyed witch was ever going to teach Dahlia.

Yet the gaunt-faced witch was gullible enough to believe Blinkie's words that her mistress would indeed advance her training in this respect.

Another way in which she was able to placate Dahlia's requests was in offering a magic powder to her, one which made it possible to change someone into a spider. Such was Dahlia's plan as she continued to look for the monkey girl: to make her a spider, and then bring her back to Blinkie. Perhaps then, she would earn the right to learn that neat spell which could remove the living soul from one's body, effectively creating a ghost.

As she stalked along a forested portion of Jinxland, she came upon a low branch just above her head…

…but did not see that Trot was upside down above it, holding to the branch, waiting for Dahlia to get closer. Swinging down backwards, her simian feet slammed right into the gaunt witch's chest, sending her sailing backwards. Such was the force of the blow that the spider packet dropped right out of her pocket. Curious, Trot grabbed this packet before relocating herself.

Dahlia was grabbed, in mid-air, by Koup, and hung upside down. The winged baboon ascended far into the skies, hoping to intimidate the apprentice enough to compel her to surrender…

…but he was completely unaware that poor Dahlia was deathly afraid of heights, and she fainted upon seeing the ground so far below her.

Settling her to the ground, unaware that she was out cold, Koup acknowledged his unforeseen mistake in but one word.

"Oops."

* * *

 **AMELIA**

"Heeeere, mon-key, mon-key…come and _geeeet iiiiit_ …."

Amelia waved a single, very delicious and healthy-looking banana around as she made her own curious and wary sweep of the deserted Jinxland village lanes.

Although the banana looked, and smelled, very much like the real thing, it was not.

It was a hand-sized, magic energy-charged wand hidden by Amelia's own developing talent: illusions. The idea was to lure the monkey in with her promise of 'the most delicious banana she'd ever tasted'. Once Trot got in close? ZAP. Problem solved.

Her joints still ached, however, from the mayhem of their first failed attempt to apprehend the other members of Ozma's entourage. The old man's super strength was entirely unexpected, and Amelia had been struck by a flying table, knocking her senseless.

Amelia also hoped to capture Trot and be able to win the affections of the boy she had a crush on from the moment she saw him. Goog L'Goo was the most handsome boy she had ever seen, after all. She had been tempted to convince Blinkie to make a love potion for her so she could ensnare the wealthy young boy's affections whether he truly liked Amelia or not. Perhaps with Trot's capture, she'd earn that potion.

It was not as if he would ever be successful in convincing _Gloria_ to marry him, after all. Thirty-nine times, Amelia had often mused to herself, and he never once accepted the hint.

"Heeeeere, mon-key, mon-key…nice, big, delicious banana for yooooou…"

Unbeknownst to Amelia, however, Trot was nowhere in the area…but it did not mean that the area was entirely empty, either. All Amelia had to do was begin walking past the next cottage.

Amelia sighed irritably as she began to pass this cottage. "Come on out here, you stupid little _chimp._ " She hissed impatiently as she neared the cottage's door…

…which suddenly slammed in her face as it burst open, a flash of black-striped orange fur dashing out of it.

Rouse tumbled forward and leapt to her rear paws, quickly spinning to face her foe. She adopted a combat stance as she gazed upon the apprentice witch, who shook her head in her recovery. She then held out the illusionary banana towards the tigress, at first believing the exposed creature to be Trot.

"Thanks." Rouse mused. "But I'm a meat-eater."

"Really?" Amelia dropped the illusion, revealing the wand. The tip, held out towards Rouse threateningly, glowed and angrily buzzed with sparking, dangerous-looking blue energy. "How shocking."

They squared off, Rouse waiting for Amelia to make a move, and Amelia doing likewise. They paced in a circle, both of their bodies tensed.

"What's the matter, kitty-cat?" Amelia tried a few quick jabs of the wand to provoke a reaction. Clearly, Rouse saw that this apprentice was more nervous than the battle-seasoned tigress. "You afraid I might light you up?"

Rouse smiled a bit at this taunt, maintaining her concentration, waiting for the right moment as they continued to pace around threateningly.

"Come on!" Amelia called out impatiently. "Gimme one good reason why I shouldn't take _charge!_ "

Amelia lunged forward with the wand, which Rouse was easily able to intercept. The tigress wrenched the arm…still gripping tightly to the sparking weapon…behind the apprentice, who grunted in pain.

"Here's a reason." Rouse calmly spoke right into the struggling apprentice's ear. "You _talk too much._ "

Rouse then pushed the sparking end of the wand into Amelia's back, and she cried out in pain as the charge surged through her. The paralyzing energy easily overcoming her senses, Amelia dropped down to the ground, unconscious.

The victorious tigress smiled down to the motionless witch, rubbing her front paws together. "Now _that_ was shocking."

* * *

 **TILDA**

This particular apprentice got lucky during the hunt. Spotting Trot, the neophyte witch gave chase through the woods. She wanted to get close enough to attempt the "bind" cantrip.

Unlike the other apprentices, Tilda had no magic specialty, as it was difficult enough for her to learn even the cantrip arts. She had just managed to master all of them when Gloria began turning Jinxland innocents to stone.

Trot, however, was too fast and maintained a safe distance from her pursuer. As a visitor from California, she knew nothing of magic, but it now seemed second nature for her to be able to rush through the woodlands quickly. She was nervous, however, about whatever magic tricks might suddenly impede her progress, and unaware that she was being pursued by a mere apprentice who hardly had the power Blinkie demonstrated when she made Trot look more simian.

One of the things Koup had taught her was the line-of-sight concept. For this to work, however, she needed a tree that was wide enough to effectively aid in her disappearance. Fortunately, she was able to find one as she moved. Getting behind it, she launched herself up at the tree and very quickly began to ascend it.

Trot made it to a high branch and angled her view down. The trick worked! Tilda didn't see her make the ascent, and the apprentice just ran past the large tree, unaware that Trot was watching her pass from a higher elevation.

Movement just ahead of the apprentice, however, kept Tilda in hot pursuit. These movements were slower, however. Slow enough for her to catch up to. Perhaps the monkey was tiring herself out? That would be advantageous, Tilda thought, as she continued her forward progress.

As the running had tired her out, Tilda slowed her pace. This part would be easy, she thought. All she needed to find was a trace of brown fur, moving slowly. Perhaps hiding in a position facing away from where Tilda was.

The rustling of low bushes. Movement. To her right.

Tilda faced a grotto now…and sure enough, a patch of brown fur was slowly making its way out of it. The apprentice smirked, raising her hand. A couple of steps into the grotto, and she would be within range of the cantrip.

The fur patch stopped. Tilda's outstretched hand flashed once, and her furry quarry fell to one side.

Smiling, Tilda stepped over to the squirming…

…lemur.

All four of its furry limbs were bound together by the cantrip as the creature grunted and groaned helplessly. Tilda's eyes widened in surprise…

…while a pair of feline eyes, hidden in a dark area within the grotto, opened up and settled on Tilda.

Shade was quick to grab the young apprentice from behind, holding her mouth and nose together and cutting off her air supply as her eyes boggled. The panther waited long enough for her tense limbs to loosen, signifying her lapse to unconsciousness.

"Lemme go! Lemme go! I din't do nuffin'!" The squirming lemur protested, its limbs still bound together in the moments before Tilda passed out.

Once she was out cold, however, the lemur's limbs released themselves.

Shade looked over to this lemur with concern. The jittery creature got back up from the ground and shook itself. Shade smiled, relieved that the lemur was OK.

The lemur smiled back to the panther. "Tenk yooooou!"

Shade nodded in acknowledgement, and then slipped back into the shadows, pulling Tilda's unconscious body in with her.

* * *

 **BLAISE**

Tasia's fire-proficient friend had come upon a particularly advantageous target during the hunt, and was in the process of stalking this quarry with the intent to threaten him with a clearly infernal fate were he to refuse his aid in capturing Trot.

The Scarecrow.

The straw-stuffed advisor looked a bit nervous, as patches of roaring flame had fired up briefly around him…conjured by Blaise, of course…and were extinguished in the very next moment. For every occurrence of the flames, the Scarecrow recoiled, gasping in terror.

Blaise was clearly enjoying herself, hiding in places she knew she would not be spotted by the now-jittery Scarecrow. With the next sudden flame burst, the straw-stuffed former ruler of Oz looked a little irritated, placing his stuffed hands on his waist. "I know a bear or two that might have something to say for you causing all these forest fires, whoever you are!"

Saying anything, of course, would betray her position, much as Blaise had wanted to call out a reply. It was tough enough for her to keep from cruelly laughing, if not tittering, over the Scarecrow's reactions alone.

Her next trick, however, was far more heartless. Blaise would need to expose herself, but the extortion tactic was necessary. Concentrating on the Scarecrow's shape, she conjured a wisp of flame in her palm, and then perched her lips to exhale upon it, as if blowing a kiss.

The wisp grew to become a full-on fireball as it shot towards the Scarecrow, and then…to all appearances…set the straw-stuffed advisor completely aflame!

The blaze, however, for all the generation of its heat, did _not_ come into contact with the Scarecrow's body, staying about an inch or two away, but giving the appearance of the horrified Scarecrow being literally torched. The Scarecrow screamed horribly as he flailed and staggered about, convinced that he had been set on fire. Blaise laughed aloud as she stepped out in front of her suffering quarry.

The Scarecrow then stopped, looking down at himself as the flames still raged around him. "Wait a minute…I…I'm not burning? But…it's so hot! You…you foul witch! This is an _illusion,_ isn't it?"

"Oh, I assure you, straw-head. Those flames are _very_ real. A wayward fly would roast upon touching the fire." Blaise gloated, a menacing expression on her young face. "I could easily bring those flames down around you unless you help me find that monkey girl."

Now of course, given his nature, the Scarecrow was indeed very much afraid of fire, judging by his alarmed reaction alone. Were it not for his excellent, self-developed brain power, justified by the Wizard of Oz himself, he probably would have lapsed into total insanity, if a Scarecrow could do such.

"I'LL SAVE YA, SCARECROW, OL' BUDDYYY!" yelled an approaching voice…

…but Blaise fired up another temporary pyre in front of the charging Lion, who lurched back with a cry of fright and retreated fearfully, just as quickly as he came.

"It's bad enough that you witches petrified innocent people!" The Scarecrow defiantly called out through the raging flames. "What right have you to turn young girls into animals?"

"Hmph. Trot was an idiot, and Dorothy was dangerous." Blaise mused. "I have to say that your friend from Kansas makes for an awfully cute and fluffy dog."

"I'd rather _burn_ than see what happens to you!" The Scarecrow shot back.

"Really? You're _asking_ me to kill you?" Blaise looked surprised at this. "Pray tell, why?"

"Because…because I know a bear or two that might have something to say for you causing all these forest fires!" The Scarecrow replied, repeating his previous statement.

Blaise giggled, remembering the statement. "I don't see any bears around, _dummy._ "

"You didn't look behind you, did you?" The Scarecrow then asked.

Blaise's initial reaction was skeptical, suspecting a trick…

…but a pair of furry arms wrapped around her from behind and began squeezing her tightly! "PUT OUT DA FIRE, OR I _CRUSH_ YOU!" Brawn yelled.

Blaise screamed aloud from the intense pressure being exerted by the ursine arms as the flames around the Scarecrow dissolved, effectively freeing him from the spell.

"Tell us where Dorothy is!" The Scarecrow called out as he approached the suffering apprentice, still being held in the bear's ursine arms. "I know that bear hug hurts! Brawn is _very_ strong!"

"T-taking…her…" Blaise began to lose consciousness, her voice straining as it weakened. "…fffor a…fff…for…" Her head began to hang behind her. "…wwwwaaaaallllk-k…"

The Scarecrow lowered his head, still feeling ashamed for being unable to prevent what had happened to Dorothy. Brawn lowered the unconscious apprentice to the ground, the strain of the bear's immense strength obviously too much for her young body to withstand.

Raising his head back up, he looked down on Blaise's body worriedly. "You didn't feel anything break when you squeezed her, did you?"

"Nooo, no. I been trained." Brawn assured. "She's just sleepin'. Dat's all. How you?"

"Little hot under the collar, but…I'm fine otherwise." The Scarecrow assured. He then looked in the direction of where he heard the Lion's approach…

…and saw the Lion himself creep slowly back towards the area. "Is…is it over?"

"Yup! All good, boss." Brawn replied.

The Lion lowered his own furry head in shame. "Sorry, Scarecrow. I'm tryin' my best ta be brave, but…well, I'm still workin' on fire."

The smiling, straw-stuffed advisor placed a warm hand on the Lion's furry shoulder. "It's the thought that counts, old friend."

The Lion smiled back, and then turned his feline eyes to the unconscious apprentice. "We betta get dis witch broad over ta HQ. She's gotta answer fa Dorothy! _Rrruff!_ "

The straw-stuffed advisor nodded. "Let's hope the others are getting as lucky as we were with those other witches."

* * *

 **FLORINA**

Flowers. Herbs. Crops.

Mastering the knowledge of, and the manipulation of, the botanical footprint of the land of Oz was Florina's ultimate ambition in her desire to become a witch.

The skin on her face was green, although this did not signify a fatal water allergy, as had been the case with a certain Wicked Witch of the West, but rather a result of her deep study of plant life in general. Believed by the other witches to have chlorophyll running through her blood, a private joke between these Jinxland witches was that Florina was less of a human and more of a growth.

She was nevertheless frighteningly effective with her talents, and it was these talents that nearly lured a very curious Trot into a trap from which she could not escape.

The banana, after all, is a fruit that is grown. Having done the trick a couple of times before in luring monkeys into her traps, Florina wanted to impress her mistress Blinkie by repeating the trick in her own effort to ensnare the monkey girl they all sought to find. The idea was to produce the scented essence of the banana, leading Trot to an area where enchanted, pre-laid vines would restrain and capture her.

As much as Trot had wanted to set such a want for a bite to eat aside, the monkey girl, truthfully, had not eaten since the morning's exercises with Koup.

As she was famished, her simian nose began to attract her towards the capture point. The potency of the scent was practically hypnotic as it drew Trot ever closer to her inevitable capture.

Florina picked a hiding spot near the capture area, but it did not conceal her very well. The gorilla called Brocius was able to spot her fairly easily from his vantage point at a nearby tree. Such was her concentration that he figured she would never spot his approach…

…but the crafty witch didn't just prepare vine-based snares at the capture point.

She had placed them _all around her._

At first, Brocius thought he had tripped over a large branch, but a large branch would not suddenly wrap around the gorilla's foot while another snaked a grip around his other ankle, and two other vines grabbed his wrists.

Smirking, Florina slowly and calmly turned to face Brocius as the vines pulled him up, spreading his arms and legs out to the sides as the surprised gorilla struggled with the uncomfortable pull of the restraining vines. As he inhaled to sound a loud warning to Trot, vines swiftly wrapped over his mouth, effectively muting his cries.

"Hmmm." Florina mused. "A captive audience. I get two for the price of one, to boot."

A few quiet minutes passed as the apprentice turned her attention back to the capture point, which remained undisturbed.

Trot's voice then interrupted the silence, her voice coming from above. "I seeeee yooooou! You'd better let Brocius go, or else!"

The sound of Trot's voice immediately irritated the green-skinned young witch, who felt for sure the monkey would trigger her carefully-laid trap. "You're missing out on some delicious food!"

"I _saw_ what you did to Brocius!" Trot countered. "You'd better let him go!"

"What do you care?" Florina countered. "You were a little girl before we made you a monkey! Are you starting to _like_ what you've become? Have you developed a crush on this gorilla or something?"

" _Let Brocius go!_ " Trot warned, her voice a little stronger. "This is your last warning!"

"You surrender yourself, and I will let your boyfriend go!" The angry apprentice called out. "You've got five seconds before those vines rip him to pieces!"

"Fine!" Trot called back. "You've got _three!_ "

One second. Florina frowned in confusion.

Two seconds. The apprentice gestured to the restraining vines, which stretched the limbs of the gorilla out painfully. Brocius groaned in his excruciating pain.

Three seconds. A large, horned beast…a rhino…rumbled towards Florina, busting through everything in his path and easily breaking triggered vines that managed to grab him. Biff rammed the side of his horned head into the surprised apprentice's body, sending her towards a tree. Slamming violently against it, the apprentice dropped to the soil below, having lapsed into unconsciousness.

With the sentience of the vines keyed to Florina's conscious mind, they loosened lifelessly once the apprentice was knocked out. Brocius pulled away the vines covering his mouth as Trot loped over to Florina's unconscious body.

"Think she's seeing stars?" Trot asked the rhino as she looked curiously down at Florina.

Biff nodded. "She's in another plane of existence. I envy her."

* * *

 **IDA**

It was with the aid of one of the senior witches that Ida was able to temporarily capture the mind, and the allegiance, of the tigress called Rouse in the previous battle with the visiting delegates. Ida had also helped in developing the collars, one of which Dorothy was now wearing.

Ida was also lucky enough to find the "HQ" that was being used by their lingering enemies. As the mesmerism-savvy apprentice managed to sneak into the partially-damaged cottage, she saw that a single unicorn occupied it.

Pippa had temporarily enchanted Ida's feet so that her footfalls would not be heard, the spell dropping if the apprentice suddenly needed to run. Ida knew enough about the unicorns of the Forest of Gugu to know that some of them were very smart. This one certainly looked like one of the smart ones.

Naturally, Ali did not suspect that he was being observed. Ida needed to move around a little with the unicorn's occasional sweeps of the area he was in within the cottage. As a lot of the interior damage from the previous battle had been cleared away, the area was an open one. The staircase leading down to the cellar…where all the discovered stone statues throughout Jinxland had been mostly relocated to…had been covered by a dislodged door.

Ida needed to stay behind the unicorn, and she needed to get close enough. This proved challenging, given Ali's near-constant movement.

Ali then shouted out, startling Ida. "Have you found it yet?"

Ida recognized Pon's old voice as it called back from outside. "N-no! This…this is not good! I…I don't know _how_ I…" His voice trailed off. No doubt he had resumed his apparently fruitless search for whatever it was that he had lost.

It then occurred to Ida that she could very possibly ensnare the both of them in her spell. All she needed was to be able to mesmerize the unicorn, and then have him summon Pon. She would take him by surprise, and Ida would have not one, but _two_ servants under her control.

Ida was close enough now to try it. She needed to get the inflections and intonations just right. The magic would do the rest.

 _Be silent._ She whispered, close enough for Ali to hear. _Keep silent. Silent is good. Silent feels wonderful. Do not move. Motionless is good. Must remain motionless._

Ali jerked his equine head up in surprise, but he then blinked, hearing the alluring voice in his head. He felt compelled to comply with it. Respond to the voice's commands.

 _Must follow the sound of my voice. Follow my command. The voice is good._ Ida continued to whisper, remaining behind him as she moved closer, knowing that the closer Ida was, the stronger her mesmerism would be for as long as she maintained the voice, and her concentration. _Follow the voice's words. Good unicorn. The voice is pleased. You want to please the voice. You need to please the voice._

Ali seemed to stagger in place as the mesmerism established a stronger hold upon him, with every word this disembodied voice spoke. It was difficult for him to think clearly now. The voice was an overriding presence now.

 _Always good to follow the voice._ Ida continued, maintaining her concentration on Ali. _Good for you, and good for your…_

*THUMP*

The blow, from a fist that came right down on Ida's head from behind, was solid enough to send her to the ground, the intensity of the strike enough to render the apprentice senseless, and then unconscious.

After a moment of confusion, Ali was able to shake his head and restore his clarity of thinking. Clopping behind him, he saw one of the red-robed apprentices out cold on the ground.

He then looked up at the old man who had apparently saved the unicorn from falling prey to a nasty spell.

Pon, smiling, raised a familiar blue pearl. "I found it."

* * *

"All new slaves are aboard the boats, Captain Buzzub." The Regos warrior reported to the larger, battle-scarred man. "There shouldn't be anyone left on the island."

Buzzub nodded. "Have fifteen of them replace our slaves at the oars. Make sure their King and Queen are among them." He growled. "The rest can go below. Did the Coregos soldiers get theirs?"

"Their boat disembarked about three minutes ago." The warrior replied. "They should be en route."

"Good. We have ours. Let's get underway then." Buzzub responded as he stepped aboard the boat, his two large, broad-bodied bodyguards…both of them armed with large battle axes…on either side of him.

Regos warriors mercilessly replaced the mildly-exhausted oarsmen…all of them hardened and loyal slaves of Regos…with the weakest and the most timid of prisoners, some of which were badly-wounded fishermen. The Regos slaves, who themselves had endured quite a bit of torture under their warrior masters, now badgered and bullied the new slaves into getting the boat moving. The prisoners strained and groaned, some against the agony of their injuries, as the huge boat began its progress away from the smouldering remains of Pingaree.

Buzzub walked between the rows of struggling slaves working the oars to continue his gloating as his two bodyguards kept an eye on him. "You'd better start getting used to this life, losers! PAIN! Only PAIN will make you feel alive! More alive than you _ever_ were pulling silly stones from the shoreline! PAIN will make you STRONG! PAIN will make you WIN! We will make you all REMEMBER this!"

The slaves continued to fearfully row, battling fatigue and injuries…if not simply an inability to row effectively…as they kept the boat moving. Those who slacked off found themselves subjected to a round of hollering and shouting from the Regos slaves, who now acted as cruel overseers for this new batch of slave labor. They got right in the faces of the underperforming slaves, without any mitigating regard to youth or old age.

Buzzub knelt in front of the suffering King Kitticut, who tried to keep from showing the agony of his muscle strains. "Is this hurting you, little king? Is it _killing_ you to keep our great big warboat moving? GOOD. But you've been so quiet, little king. Has the defeated leader of his pitiful little island got anything to say to his conquerors? Anything at all?"

Kitticut, however, kept quiet. He knew that meaningless talk was wasted energy. No doubt that was the reason the Regos commander was goading him into saying something. All Buzzub got for a reply was a glare.

But Buzzub was not done. He moved to the opposite row, where Queen Garee suffered from her own rowing pains. "Maybe I'll take your sweet little lamb here for far more difficult labor, eh? Give her some _really_ hard work! Make sure she bleats loud enough for you to hear!"

The adolescent slave behind the King was visibly disgusted by this. He had to speak out. "Leave her alone! Don't you _dare_ touch her!"

Buzzub, however, went right over to this slave with an enraged expression, lifting him right out of the seat with one arm. He then held the defiant slave's head in both of his calloused hands, and slammed his hard forehead right into the tired slave's face. The impact didn't kill him, but it was enough to immediately knock him out.

Despite the slave's unconsciousness, Buzzub continued to roar savagely into the slave's face. "I WILL DO WHAT I WANT, WHEN I WANT! NO ONE TALKS BACK TO ME LIKE THAT!" He then threw the motionless slave to one of his bodyguards. "Throw him below, get another one. Weakest you can find. Even if it's a kid."

And indeed, the brute came back with a boy no less than about 14 years of age. All Buzzub needed to do was point to the empty space, and the fearful boy took the oar with shaking hands. In fact, he was too frightfully nervous to even begin moving the oar.

But as Buzzub inhaled to voice another torrent of rage…

"SHIP AHOOOOY!" The Regos sailor sounded very much alarmed as Buzzub turned his attention to the Bow lookout, as per his routine.

"Bow, report!" Buzzub growled.

"Nothing, my lord Captain!" The bow lookout called back.

"Stern, report!" was Buzzub's next command.

"Nothing behind us, my lord Captain!"

"Right starboard, report!" Buzzub yelled, sounding frustrated.

"Right lanes clear, my lord Captain!" was the reply.

"Left starboard, report!" Buzzub roared.

"All clear, my lord Captain!" the lookout returned.

Buzzub sighed irritably. "WHERE'S THE BLOODY SHIP?" He roared in vivid anger.

"UP, my lord Captain!" came the cry from the warboat's crow's nest. "It's ABOVE US! And DESCENDING!"

Each and every head aboard the warboat craned their heads straight up…

…and they indeed saw the underbelly of a boat above them, apparently matching speed with them!

The _O.D. Betsy Bobbin_ began drifting to the right as it lowered down. It stopped its gradual descent alongside the warboat, but it remained high enough to avoid being in the striking path of the boat's side cannons.

The Regos sailors and warriors stared in awe at the airborne vessel, as did the slaves who were ordered to stop rowing. Once both vessels stopped, Buzzub saw a metallic humanoid with a sword step to the starboard side of the Oz Dirigible to address the warboat's crew.

"We could have crushed your boat." The tin-plated soldier noted. "But we know you have hostages. Release them, and bring them onto our vessel."

"WE HAVE SLAVE RIGHTS TO THESE VERMIN!" Buzzub defiantly roared. "GO GET YOUR OWN!"

"We are revoking those rights in the name of the princess Ozma of Oz." The tin soldier held his sword out and panned it along the ship's occupants as he spoke. "If I have to fight you all on my own to win their freedom, I will."

"Who are you?" Kitticut curiously asked.

"I am Fyter, navigator and helmsman of the Oz Dirigible _Betsy Bobbin_." The tin soldier replied.

Buzzub now flashed a sick grin, hearing the tin soldier's name. Somehow, he knew that this tin soldier could be the challenge he had been waiting his entire life to defeat. "Get on this boat, and let's see how much of a fighter you _really_ are, 'Fyter'!"

Fyter, however, shook his head. "I respond only to the commands of my _own_ Captain."

"THEN GET YOUR CAPTAIN OUT HERE!" Buzzub impatiently roared.

Now it was Fyter's turn to smile. "Are you _sure_ you want her out here? You might regret your words."

" _GET THAT LAMB OUT HERE!_ OR WE'LL _SWARM_ YOUR B-buh..." The sight of the emerging, glittery girl immediately dissolved Buzzub's rage to one of rising fear as he took a couple of steps slowly backward. "…buh…"

Illusionary glitter streamed beneath her as Betsy, her arms outstretched to her sides in self-presentation, rose above the dirigible's platform and floated in mid-air, high enough for all on the seabound warboat to see. Betsy herself tried to keep from being visibly surprised at this unexpected effect, remembering what the Wizard had said about being able to offer help.

Their reactions were just as frightful the moment they spotted Betsy. "Oh no…n- _nooo_ …"

"I-It _can't_ be!" Another sailor yelled. He brought an index finger up towards the floating Captain. " _It's the STARCHILD!_ "

Another battle-scarred warrior aboard the warboat grasped at Buzzub fearfully. "Let's let the slaves go! She will BURN US!"

"Showers of sparkling fire!" Said another sailor. "She will call it down from the skies! We will be set _aflame!_ "

Buzzub himself was mumbling fearfully at the sight of Betsy. "Th-the prophecy…" his body shook terribly. "…the prophecy…"

Even Buzzub's _bodyguards,_ as mighty and as imposing as they were, found reason to fear, as they too believed in the old Regos legends. They joined most of the Regos warriors as they dropped to their knees in submission at the very sight of the floating, glittery girl.

Clearly, they all thought their destruction was imminent as their prisoners gazed in a mix of awe and confusion at their captors suddenly becoming as timid as lambs before this glitter-skinned entity, who removed her Captain's jacket and handed it off to Fyter.

* * *

Oscar had to keep from rolling on the floor in exultant laughter over what he was not only seeing, but hearing, through the crystal ball he was transmitting his levitational magic through. These Regos warriors were indeed frightened of the starchild myth he had read about!

Apparently, it was their fear of this starchild…who had indeed come from the heavens, and had skin decorated by billions upon zillions of glittering stars, according to the legends…that had turned the once timid people of Regos into a more aggressive culture, vowing to never again repeat the cowardice they demonstrated over the appearance of this legendary female entity.

The apparent fortuitousness of Betsy's situation was astounding.

Keeping his composure, he continued listening as Betsy spoke her first words, the Wizard of Oz ready to assist her if needed…

* * *

"Bring those pris'ners aboard this ship!" Betsy commanded. "R'lease them! _All_ of 'em!"

Buzzub, however, looked hesitant. "Umm…" The Regos captain gave a sheepish smile. "…s-slave rights?"

"NOW!" Betsy yelled angrily.

A cascade of wild…and, unbeknownst to everyone aboard the warboat, harmlessly illusionary…firecracker-like explosions crackled vividly around Betsy's glittery hands, causing the Regos conquerors aboard the warboat to recoil and quiver, some of them whimpering with fear.

The frightened soldiers now labored to move their captives to the _O.D. Betsy Bobbin_ , which lowered in elevation so the dirigible could more conveniently receive them all in the ship-to-ship transfer.

The 14 year old boy Buzzub's bodyguards had brought up defiantly stuck his tongue out to the bullying Regos Captain before transferring to the dirigible's deck.

Betsy stepped right over to Buzzub. "Any oth'rs I should know 'bout?"

"No! No!" The Captain fearfully replied. "You've got them all."

The glittery young Captain's hands went to her waist, a wary expression on Betsy's face. "I saw _two_ ships leave port! Are there more on that oth'r ship?"

"That's not one of ours." Buzzub replied. "That's the Coregos boat."

"Then you an' your men man those oars!" Betsy commanded, gesturing towards the vacated oarsman's spaces. "I'm takin' this ship, an' we're gonna get _those_ pris'ners, too!"

At that point, loud bangs were heard in the distance, and the streaming of cannonballs preceded a pair of splashes which were very close to the dirigible. One of the transferred Pingaree citizens was quick to identify it. "Cannon fire! It's the Coregos warboat! They're headed this way!"

Another pair of cannon shots came even closer to the _Betsy Bobbin_ 's hull. The glittery Captain turned to Fyter. "Take her up! Now! Stay close to us!"

"Aye, Captain!" Fyter acknowledged, already heading for the burners that would bring the dirigible back up into the skies. They just managed to clear the water just as the next salvo from the Coregos warboat was about to slam into the dirigible's hull. They instead sank into the water.

The Regos sailor at the Crow's Nest called down. "Coregos warboat approaching!"

Betsy put on her most furious face as she glared to Buzzub. "You'd bett'r fight back, or I'll wreck _both_ your ships!"

Pale with fright, Buzzub went to the edge of the warboat, calling out to the approaching Coregos vessel as loud as he could, waving his hands above him in his wild bid for restraint. "CEASE FIRIIIING! CEASE FIRIIIIING! STOOOOP! STOOOOP!"

One more volley splashed harmlessly beneath the nonestic ocean surface before the guns of the Coregos warboat finally went quiet as they continued their approach towards the stationary Regos vessel.

* * *

High above, the freed King Kitticut turned to Fyter. "Does this… _incredible_ machine have any weapons at all? Any cannons, like theirs?"

The tin-plated soldier shook his head. "I'm afraid not. We can only watch, your highness."

And watch, they did. All heads looked over the edge of the ship curiously, gazing down upon the confrontation between the Regos boat and the Coregos vessel. Only the patchwork girl at the pedal station looked completely uninterested…and visibly bored…as she idled.

Hank looked particularly worried now. "I hope Betsy knows what she's doin'."

"I'm a bit surprised myself." Fyter admitted. "I thought we were going to have a very difficult fight on our hands. I didn't think…" He stopped himself, and then led the mule away from Scraps so he could speak to Hank more discreetly, keeping his voice low so the patchwork girl could not hear them. "…I didn't think the idea Scraps had would work as well as it did. I figured it would make for a decent-enough diversion, at least, but I never expected a surrender as radical as this."

"T' be honest, Fyt'r, I don't like it." Hank quietly admitted. "We were lucky, sure…but how long will it last 'fore we hit a hitch?"

* * *

"AHOOOOY!" A formally-uniformed Coregos sailor called out. By now, the ship was close enough to allow both vessels to communicate in a tone other than yells. "Why did you boys stop? And where are your…"

Betsy floated up from the deck of the Regos vessel once more, and drifted into view of the Coregos sailors. None of their prisoners could be seen on the deck, so she had to surmise that they were in the belly of the ship. The uniformed soldiers, however, upon spotting Betsy stared at her glittery appearance in awe.

Buzzub gestured to the levitating girl. "The starchild has come! That ship that came down from the skies is hers!"

Murmurs were now heard among the occupants of the Coregos warboat. No one could tell what they were speaking of, and Betsy began to look a little concerned.

The glittery girl then heard a voice inside her head, which she easily recognized to be Oscar's. " _Shoot your arms out towards that ship, Betsy! Make a real show of it!_ "

Once Betsy did this, the entire Coregos vessel was hit with a _huge_ barrage of crackles, booms, flashes, pops, and minor explosions loud and soft. It quite literally sounded as if the warboat was under full attack, and the startled Coregos sailors and soldiers now screamed and shouted as they reacted fearfully to the wild barrage. Betsy was reminded of a loud fourth of July fireworks display as she watched the show of illusionary violence.

The Regos soldiers similarly backed away, fearfully, from Betsy as she lowered her arms, the glittery girl still levitating in place. "That's for firin' on my ship!" a frowning Betsy yelled.

The barrage continued until the soldier who had called to them hollered again. "PLEASE! PLEASE! NO MORE!" Betsy heard others aboard the ship pleading likewise. As they continued to plead for a stop to the barrage, the cacophany finally came to an end as Betsy crossed her arms in satisfaction.

What she heard from the soldier next, she did not expect. "You must be here to see our Queen! This is the only explanation for your appearance!"

Both the Wizard and Betsy were more or less taken off-guard by this statement. The glittery Queen of Diamonds was the first to attempt a reply fitting to the situation. "I'm not here t' see no Queens! I'm here 'cause y' took _slaves!_ "

"Yes! Yes! We know of this! This is the first sign of your coming!" The soldier assured. "A great wave of servitude! They would be offered unto the starchild!"

The Wizard's eyes boggled in shock back at Glinda's palace. Obviously, he should have read those legends in much more detail!

"Well, I…I don't _want_ no slaves! Yours can go free!" Betsy attempted, trying not to sound nervous. "I don't care what your dumb ol' signs say! Y' want me t' burn your ships?"

A loud cacophany of fearful 'no's were shouted forth from both ships now as Betsy raised her arms up threateningly.

"You're tryin' t' TRICK me, aren't you?" Betsy shouted once again, and the crews of both ships once again recoiled, calling out their assurances that this was not their intention. "C'mon, now! Bring those pris'ners up! They're all goin' back t' Pingaree!"

The Captain of the Coregos vessel…just as afraid as the others of this starchild figure, but a little more crafty at the same time…slowly made his way to the edge of the ship to get a closer look at the glittery girl hovering above the deck of the Regos warboat with his hands raised in front of him. He had a growth of beard along the curve of his chin from ear to ear, but no moustache beneath his nose. "Our Queen…has been wanting to meet you, o' starchild of legend. Permit us to take you to the city of Coregos so that you may meet Queen Cor, and we will gladly surrender our prisoners to you."

"Hah! You're gonna give me those pris'ners anyway!" Betsy boldly countered.

"But our queen has always wanted to meet a legendary figure." The Coregos captain explained. "Will you not grant her this grace?"

"Hand ov'r those pris'ners, an' I'll think on it!" Betsy replied. "Why're you all bullyin' Pingaree anyway? What'd _they_ ev'r do t' you?"

"I am certain Queen Cor and her husband, Gos, would be more than willing to explain if you give them the chance to." The uniformed Captain responded. "They are both in Coregos, awaiting our return."

Betsy had hoped that she would hear the Wizard's voice again so that she might get his opinion on this proposal. She wondered, in the absence of such a grace, whether it would be prudent at all to effort the possibility of peace, and the abolishing of this 'slave rights' nonsense. Would Cor and Gos be even remotely receptive to the idea?

She figured it would ultimately be dependent on whether or not they believed their own legends at all. There was already the noted desire by the Queen of Coregos…according to the Coregos Captain, that is…that she should meet the legendary starchild, after all.

Further, if there were any real reason for the hostilities between Pingaree and the two belligerent islands of Regos and Coregos, she was curious to hear it. Perhaps someone…or everyone…in Pingaree were responsible for some terrible wrong, which gave the two island societies justifiable reason to attack the pearl-fishers.

Betsy maintained her frown as she spoke. "There bett'r not be any tricks, or I'll burn both your ships! Take us t' Coregos!"

Making every effort to hide her nervousness, Betsy boldly crossed her arms in front of her as the warboats resumed their journey to the island of Coregos.

* * *

Prince Inga and King Rinkitink had heard every word of the unexpected encounter between the Coregos soldiers and this 'starchild' that had suddenly made them so scared. As it was quite dark below the decks of the Coregos warboat, they could not see anything.

The wisdom of the white pearl was Inga's guide as he, Bilbil, and the rotund ruler of his own eponymous land managed to slip aboard the Coregos vessel undetected before it had disembarked from Pingaree.

It was a matter of pure logic that the white pearl gave Inga no urge to escape the boat with the prisoners in tow. He figured that if there were to be any solution, any means of escape and liberation at all, it would need to wait until they arrived at Coregos.

But what bothered Inga even more was the feelings of dread he felt when he overheard the exchange on the decks above, and how the Coregos Captain had managed to convince this 'starchild' to meet the Queen. If this were a wise move, the white pearl would not be transmitting such dread to the young Prince.

Which meant that this starchild might very well fall victim to a trap.


	7. VII: Lost and Found

**It's 2016! Happy New Year, dear readers!**

 **Just a note that I've been MULTITASKING with the Talespinner's Oz stories, the other one being a comic book-based story called "The Carnevillans of Oz"! Look for Issue #0 on the FurAffinity and the DeviantArt websites!**

 **Now let's resume our story by revisiting Blinkie's mean ol' witches...**

* * *

 **VII: Lost and Found**

As the apprentices were being dealt with by the crafty Legion, their one-eyed mistress had begun leading her new pet around her eight-sided home, secure in the notion that the more potent witches of her coven were seeing to their security.

Dorothy no longer seemed to be fighting what she had become, too. Since transforming the Kansas girl, Blinkie had made it essential for her pet to be treated with as much care as she could offer the anthropomorphic dog she had created. The dangerous enemy Dorothy used to be, after all, was practically dead and gone, so there was not much in the way of any lingering worry…at least, from Blinkie's perspective…that her new pet's human identity would re-emerge.

Still…a part of the one-eyed witch did not want to take any chances, no matter how much she loved her new pet.

Using her magic to generate a piece of raw meat in one hand, Blinkie held it above Dorothy's head, and the dog angled her head up so that her moist black nose could sniff upon it. The dog's eyes widened as she raised her front paws yearningly towards it. The amused witch could not help but giggle as she dropped the palm-sized meat down to the ground, allowing Dorothy to grab it with her teeth and begin chewing hungrily upon it as Blinkie lowered to a knee and rubbed a wrinkled hand over the anthropomorphic dog's furry head of hair.

"Goooood girl. Yeeeessss…isn't that _delicious?_ " Blinkie continued rubbing and petting the former Kansas girl's fur with genuine affection. "Just as satisfying as last night's meal, right? That's just a taste of what's to come tonight, Dorothy dear." Blinkie then wrapped her arms around her new pet's furry body, embracing her lovingly.

As the collar's deep mental conditioning acknowledged Blinkie as a friend, this being particularly reinforced by the witch's kindness towards her, Dorothy's furry arms wrapped around Blinkie as well, and she rested her head lovingly against Blinkie's shoulder, the anthro dog's tail wagging happily behind her.

The one-eyed witch was particularly pleased to see that her pet's tail was wagging with approval.

The old crone's lips then came close to one of Dorothy's fluffy canine ears, and she began to whisper unto it. A single word, followed by a set of instructions. One of her hands that had been running over Dorothy's fur was now tracing patterns upon the anthro dog's furry back as she spoke. The tip of Blinkie's index finger was glowing as she traced out this pattern. The former Kansas girl's eyes widened as Blinkie spoke, and as the witch spoke them in a tone that was itself enchanted, the word…and the instructions relating to it…had imprinted very deeply upon the mind of Blinkie's pet.

Dorothy's only response to this was to tilt her head curiously when she looked upon Blinkie's amused face. The witch responded by rubbing the white fur underneath the canine girl's chin affectionately.

Blinkie then brought her lips to her pet's furry forehead and planted a kiss there, smiling sweetly. Her tone was quite sincere as she spoke her next words. "You're going to like being my dog, Dorothy. I promise you."

" _MISTREEEEESS!_ "

Cheralyn's voice. Blinkie shut her eyes and let out a loud, irritated sigh. Her private joy with the dog she had always wanted had been broken. Cheralyn sounded particularly distressed, too.

The one-eyed witch did not want to leave her dog's side. " _WHAT?_ " She hoped it was something minor. Or at least, something Blinkie judged to be minor.

"Our apprentices!" Cheralyn called back. " _They're not reporting in!_ "

A minor thing indeed, Blinkie thought, but a potentially crippling one. She figured Pippa would be particularly upset if anything had happened to Tilda, the apprentice she had a strong attraction towards. It was clear that Tilda was Pippa's Achilles heel. If anything had happened to Tilda, Pippa would be devastated. If Tilda had been taken captive by the lingering visitors from outside Jinxland, she could be used as leverage.

Blinkie opened her mouth to shout out an option, but stopped herself. She did this more than once, making her more irritable every time she stopped. For every option the one-eyed witch thought up, there was a reason why it was a problematic suggestion. As much as she wanted to stay with Dorothy, she didn't want to lose control of Jinxland to these outsiders.

But then another voice evaporated her hesitation.

"BLIN-KIIIIIE! GET OVER HERE! _NOW!_ AND _DON'T_ BRING THAT STUPID DOG WITH YOU!"

Gloria.

Blinkie was now in a particularly bad mood, but she did not vent this to her pet. She just ran her wrinkled hands over Dorothy's soft head of canine fur and kissed her again on the forehead. "I'll be right back, my sweet pet. You stay right here." She softly remarked.

Turning in the direction of the voices as she began her approach towards them, her expression turned particularly sour.

"Your highness…these are my best students. Full witches. Every one of them. Pippa, Sima, Cheralyn, Ness…" Blinkie gestured to them, trying to keep her tone civil as she walked towards the blue-veined princess. "…I can't babysit all of them, you know."

"Oh? Shall I assume you're close to treason, then?" Gloria mused. "The apprentices are gone, and a couple of your so-called 'witches' are a little lost in indecision. I don't want you playing with that silly dog of yours until you deal with those outsiders. Definitively, and personally. If these are your strongest witches, get together and do a…a ritual or something. _Anything_ that can take them all out at once. Find that monkey first. Sima here…" she gestured to the robed woman who found Trot. "…thinks that Trot might have _swallowed_ the Medusa Stone. She has a spell in mind to force it out of that chimp, but we need to capture her to use it. So guess what you and your witches are going to do for me now?"

Blinkie couldn't help but muse to herself. _Turn her majesty into a shrew?_

"You're going to go out there and get that chimp!" Gloria added, in mock sweetness.

Sighing, Blinkie turned to the other witches, one hand grasping something beneath the robes at her waist. "Let's form a scrying circle. We're going to find out what happened to our apprentices."

Gloria's eyes widened angrily. "What did I just…"

Blinkie's aged hand whipped out furiously from beneath the robes, and a dagger shot towards Gloria's head. Raising her hand up, the blade telekinetically stopped, the point of the blade pressing against the blue-veined young monarch's forehead.

The only good eye of the old witch flashed with fury as it glared upon Gloria, who looked quite shocked by this move. "My coven comes before your chimp, your majesty."

"And my chimp comes before your dog." Gloria shot back, more angry than fearful as Blinkie gathered her witches around in a circle. "Spend too much time with this 'scrying' of yours, and I'll have your new dog eat a knife just like _this_ one." She gestured to the dagger pressing against her forehead.

" _Hush!_ " Blinkie hissed angrily. "We need to _concentrate!_ " She then extended a hand towards the dagger, and it flew back to the old woman's hand. Sheathing the blade beneath the robes at her waist, Blinkie turned her attention back to the scrying ritual, which was more of a series of mental images shared solely by the witches in the circle than anything that could be seen by the naked eye, which meant Gloria would have to wait. Predictably, she crossed her arms quite impatiently as her witches chanted their incantations and pressed thumbnails painfully upon the wrists of the ones in the circle who were next to them.

 _BLAM!_ The thunderous noise was at the outer edge of the eight-sided house. The entire place shook violently. Yet another hard blow had windows breaking, and another loud blow.

As they were caught in mid-incantation, the witches…Blinkie included…were quite disoriented by the sudden violence.

"They're _here!_ " Gloria hollered. She then raised a finger in the direction of the noise. " _DEAL WITH THEM!_ "

Blinkie and her five charges endured more violent impacts as the house began to come down around them as they raced towards the source of the ongoing impacts.

A very loud smash of glass preceded the charge of a rhino as the beast intercepted the witches, swinging his large head to and fro, smashing everything in his path. In the darkness of the area, there was a loud roar and a flash of black-striped orange fur as Ness came under attack from the second beast that was apparently on the rhino's back.

"Rouse, NO!" The rhino yelled. "You were supposed to be backup!"

Acting upon what was apparently unexpected, Pippa and Sima combined their magical might to increase the pull of gravity around the rhino, making it impossible for him to move as they held their arms out towards him and chanted the words that held him to the ground beneath him. Groaning under the paralyzing intensity of the gravitational pull, Pippa and Sima continued to maintain their hold upon Biff.

As Blinkie and Cheralyn raised their hands towards the tigress attacking Ness, Marge raced towards the source of the banging. She was able to spot the old man…Pon…laying down another devastatingly hard blast with one of his fists…

"Time ta go, brudda!"

…before a winged baboon suddenly scooped him up and lifted him into the air.

Lightning-like surges of purple energy, issuing forth from the fingers of three powerful witches, had Rouse squinting her eyes shut as the energy danced around her head, fusing not only pain, but suggestions unto the mind of the headstrong tigress. Rouse tried, as hard as she could, to resist what was being forced upon her, but between the pain and the fact that not one, but three witches were concentrating their will upon her, her mind was incapable of withstanding the attack. Eventually, her flailing paws dropped down as her angry face melted to a more blank expression.

It was during all this violence that Gloria decided to act upon a much more cold-blooded urge. Going into the house's kitchen, she pulled a butcher knife. The princess then headed over to where she knew Dorothy was.

The dagger at her forehead was the impetus for this murderous urge. She was sure the tip of that blade had bit deep enough into her cold skin to produce at least a drop of blood. Gloria now wanted Dorothy to suffer similarly.

All she saw, however, when she came upon the area where she knew Blinkie kept the anthropomorphic dog was a leash, and one of those enchanted collars.

But there was no Dorothy.

Gloria's eyes widened as she realized that this was no deliberate attack.

It was a _diversion._

The blue-veined princess smiled. Good, she thought. More leverage to earn a bit more loyalty from Blinkie.

* * *

"BLIN-KIIIIIE! GET OVER HERE! _NOW!_ AND _DON'T_ BRING THAT STUPID DOG WITH YOU!"

Gloria.

Blinkie was now in a particularly bad mood, but she did not vent this to her pet. She just ran her wrinkled hands over Dorothy's soft head of canine fur and kissed her again on the forehead. "I'll be right back, my sweet pet. You stay right here." She softly remarked.

Dorothy watched the one-eyed witch leave, feeling a little sad that her owner was stepping away, and the anthro dog lowered her head.

In the next moment, however, Dorothy's canine nose picked up an odd scent. Her head rose up curiously.

It was the scent of hay.

The Scarecrow moved slowly, having dropped the illusion provided by the gold pearl which allowed him to assume the appearance of a stone shape. Maneuvering around the anthro dog, he had to act quickly using the green pearl.

As Dorothy…who was now moaning a quiet, wary growl…turned to face the direction of the scent, the Scarecrow held the green pearl in one of his hands, and held out his other hand. " _Shrink!_ " He quietly commanded.

The green pearl emanated a faint glow, and Dorothy's body began to diminish in size. It was the Scarecrow's hope that the collar the anthro dog was wearing would not also shrink along with Dorothy.

Much to the Scarecrow's great relief, it didn't.

The straw-stuffed advisor lowered his arm, hoping it would stop Dorothy from shrinking. With her neck now too small for the collar, she began to blink in confusion, as if coming out of a deep sleep. She then shook her head as memories that had been magically suppressed suddenly began surging to the fore, released from a cruel and oppressive magical grip enforced by the feel of the enchanted collar.

The Scarecrow grabbed Dorothy by a furry wrist and pulled her alongside him. "Follow me, Dorothy!" his voice, now familiar to Dorothy, hissed quietly.

As they moved, loud bangs could be heard back at Blinkie's place as they moved further and further from it. The Scarecrow eventually diverted Dorothy to one of the unoccupied cottages, this one having the benefit of a cellar.

Once they were both safely below the cottage, the Scarecrow turned to his now canine friend and lifted his arm toward her once again. " _Grow._ "

A confused and disoriented Dorothy felt herself restore to her normal size, after which the smiling Scarecrow lowered his arm.

Dorothy now took a closer look at her familiar savior, and the straw-stuffed advisor now saw that this anthropomorphic dog's eyes were changing to the appearance and the colors of the Kansas girl she used to be.

Stepping closer to him on digitigrade legs, Dorothy's head tilted to the side in her curiosity. It now became apparent that this was someone she knew to be a very special friend.

"S…Scare-crowww?" Dorothy quietly asked.

The straw-stuffed man nodded emphatically. "Yes! Yes! Oh, rapture…you _do_ remember me!"

"Sssscarecrow…I…" her padded hands rubbed at her furry face. "...I…I ff-feel so s…ssstrange…"

Upon looking at her paw-like hands, Dorothy let out a horrified shriek, shocked that they were no longer human!

The Scarecrow immediately wrapped his arms, consolingly, around the anthropomorphic dog his friend had become. She shook terribly in his arms, and she whimpered in a very canine manner as he held her. "Shhhhh…not so loud, Dorothy. We don't want to be noticed. Don't worry…those witches have their hands full, and you're safe with me now."

"W…wh…wwwwhat's…ha- _happened_ to me?" Dorothy whispered between her canine whimpers.

"It was those witches, Dorothy." The Scarecrow quietly answered. "They had you under their control. That collar is gone now, though. They must have laid another enchantment on you while you were out. I'm afraid you look a little more like Toto now."

Dorothy broke away from the Scarecrow's embrace to look upon him with wide eyes, which were now thankfully human. "Y…y-you mean I…I-I'm a _dog?_ " She looked down at her furry body, and she angled her head behind her to get a look at her furry tail. Her eyes then looked upon her strangely-shaped legs, which were now no different than Toto's, save for her fur being a brown-blotched white rather than black.

When she lowered herself to the ground, she sat no differently from a common dog, her padded hands between her legs, resting upon the ground as she lowered her head in despair. The Scarecrow noticed that she was panting in short breaths, too, much like Toto always did when he was tired.

She then rose her head up to the Scarecrow. "I…I don't look too bad, do I?"

"Oh, no! Not at all!" The Scarecrow lowered to a knee in front of Dorothy. "Actually, your fur looks real nice and soft! I bet you feel like you're wearing a coat."

The straw-stuffed man finally saw a slight smile on Dorothy's face, which thankfully did not have the muzzled shape Toto's did. "Yeah, it…it does feel like that." The anthro dog then sighed distressfully. "I still feel really weird, though."

"The Lion should be able to help you there, Dorothy." The Scarecrow quietly assured. "He told me to get you right to him. He told me that for as long as you're like this, you're going to be a full member of the Legion of Courage. I'm sure they're gonna teach you all kinds of useful tricks, Dorothy. All we have to do is get you back over to, um, 'headquarters'."

Dorothy nodded in response, and then, upon feeling a tickly feeling at her floppy ear, she brought her right front paw up to scratch at it.

"She must have treated you pretty badly." The straw-stuffed advisor quietly surmised. "Blinkie, that is."

But Dorothy frowned at this, tilting her head to the side. "No. Not at all." She then shook her head rapidly, her floppy ears flapping around as she did. "Actually, I…I dimly remember her being very nice to me. It was…strange. She fed me…she petted me…rubbed me beneath my chin…I remember that all feeling really nice, too."

Although this was a somewhat troubling thing to hear, the Scarecrow nodded. "Just as long as you remember that no matter how nice she may have been, she's the cause of all these problems."

Dorothy lowered her furry head as she nodded. "I know…" Her tone, however, sounded unsure as she spoke. "…I know…"

After a quiet moment, Dorothy suddenly felt playful, and the anthro dog then burst up from the ground somewhat excitedly. Her voice now sounded very eager. "Can we go to see the lion now? Hmmm?" She held her padded hands in front of her, in a disturbingly canine manner.

The Scarecrow shrugged, smiling. "The coast should be clear up top, so…let's move on!"

" _Rruff!_ " Dorothy unexpectedly barked as the two began moving. Such was her sudden eagerness to see the lion again…he and the Scarecrow being acknowledged friends, and thus easy for the dog to react so positively to…that she ignored her own concern over this canine reflex action.

The Scarecrow moved as oddly as he always did as they both hurried along the cottages towards the Headquarters. A part of Dorothy couldn't help but wonder if Blinkie was still all right…

…but this concern was hardly as strong as her feelings were for the lion, and the Scarecrow she was now quite eagerly following.

Not only out of love, but out of instinct as well.

* * *

Oscar was enjoying himself far too much as he continued to channel his levitational magic through the crystal ball at Glinda's Palace. He had just finished settling Betsy to the docks once the Coregos warboat settled in and was securely tied by shiphands. They all watched in amazement as the glitter-skinned girl settled to the wooden platform by the ship.

As the Wizard continued to observe Betsy's movements, it occurred to him that he had spent quite a bit of time watching over her. He wanted to get a glimpse at how Jellia and Omby were faring at the royal palace.

Passing his hands over the smooth glass of the crystal ball, the image of Betsy's approach to the city of Coregos blurred out of focus, and then sharpened to show the images of the royal palace…

…which was, thankfully, quite serene. Shifting the image to the interior of the Royal Palace revealed that a certain tin woman had acted on a personal initiative to act as Oscar's representative. Empress Nimmie seemed to be doing quite well, too, with Jellia acting as interim advisor. As usual, Omby was at the do…

 ***BAM***

With his attention so deeply rooted upon the large crystal ball, it was easy for the palace's rotund intruder to bring a blow powerful enough to knock him out down upon Oscar's head. He crumpled to the floor. The intruder then locked the doors to the room he was using.

The intruder had no magic through which to channel any kind of sabotage, as much as the phanfasm agent wished he did.

He had been given the form of an owl, provided to him by his master, in his attempt to get into the palace. From there, it was through a magic locket he had also been given that he went from the form of an owl to the human guise he had been using.

But the guise he called Hootley was not a very well-known one. At least, not to anyone outside of Jinxland. He needed to adopt a much more effective guise. Placing his chubby hand upon the unconscious Wizard's head, and holding his locket in his other hand, the locket glowed as its magic encased Hootley with a glowing purple mist.

When the mists parted, Oscar Diggs got to work binding and gagging the unconscious form of the _true_ Wizard using whatever he could find in the room. Once he was securely restrained and muffled, the phanfasm found a dark closet large enough to store him away in and locked him into it.

He then settled into the chair in front of the crystal ball to idly observe the images playing within it, boring as they were.

A knock at another door, this one leading into the hallways of the palace, preceded the appearance of one of Glinda's handmaidens. "Oscar? Are you doing okay in here?"

"Hm? Oh yes, thank you, my dear." The locket's magic made it possible for the phanfasm to perfectly mimic Oscar's voice. "I'm just a little tied up with this crystal ball, as you can see."

* * *

As much as she thought it would have been more effective for her to continue levitating, Betsy nevertheless held her head high as she was escorted through the city of Coregos by the captains of the docked warboats. Behind them were the sailors and warriors of both Regos and Coregos, the soldiers of Coregos marching with more precision than the more casual approach of the Regos fighters and sailors.

While the city did have merchants and farms, a majority of the buildings were more military in nature as Betsy passed them. Indeed, the city was more of a barracks than a typical metropolis, with rows of soldiers marching about, training, and practicing arts of war than living more civil lives. Guard towers were everywhere, with soldiers manning each and every one of them.

What chilled Betsy even more, however, were the cracks of whips that were laid down upon human servants which were crawling about on the ground, cowering before their masters and mistresses. These servants, much like the images Betsy saw in the Magic Picture, had bright pink skin and lavender-colored hair. Unlike those images, however, she saw that their eyes had glowing pink irises as well, and it seemed that these irises glowed brighter whenever they were particularly frightened.

Betsy heard some of the soldiers behind her make cruel jokes at the expense of these servants, never caring whether or not they were in earshot. As much as she knew that it was necessary to keep up with her act as the 'starchild', Betsy could not help but feel a sense of loathing for these cruel and domineering people. She was certain Oscar felt the same way.

Confident that Oscar was still watching over her, and was ready to provide more assistance, Betsy maintained her stride, feeling more than a little amused over all the attention she was getting as she passed everyone, as they went into the fortress where she was told the King of Regos and the Queen of Coregos were present.

The sailors and soldiers eventually brought Betsy to an area inside the fortress which was quite large, and had two large golden seats with red cushions on each of them. A man and a woman wearing large, matching golden crowns of a most unusual design sat upon these throne seats, and turned to face their guests as they filled the large space in the throne room. As the eyes of the man and the woman…obviously King Gos and Queen Cor…fell upon Betsy, the glitter-skinned girl assumed as bold a pose as she could perform.

The face of the black-bearded, well-built and brutish King Gos went pale upon seeing Betsy, and his angry-looking eyes went wide with great concern. Obviously, he was a believer in these legends the soldiers and the warriors had spoken of, and he reacted accordingly. Betsy felt a bit of relief at this.

But when her eyes went to Queen Cor, she saw that the female monarch's right eyebrow had arched up curiously. She seemed a little more amused than afraid, and it was she who slowly rose up and took a couple of steps toward Betsy, her eyes never leaving the glitter-skinned girl.

"And…what is this you have brought before me?" Queen Cor began. "Buzzub. Speak."

"It is the great and powerful starchild of our legends, my Queen!" Buzzub responded. "The Captain of the Coregos warboat wanted to bring her before you."

"Did you succeed in your mission?" Cor then asked, not looking very interested in what Betsy was identified as. "Has Pingaree fallen? Do we have their people aboard your boats?"

"I…we gave up the Regos slaves at the starchild's command." Buzzub reported. "They are aboard her own boat, which came down on us from the skies."

Cor nodded slowly at this. She seemed to quote, thoughtfully, from a text as she spoke. "'…and she took her fill of servants, and left the Regos to run'. What of _our_ slaves?"

"Still aboard the boat, but…waiting." Buzzub replied. "The starchild means to free them, too."

"And leave us both empty-handed, eh?" Cor mused. She then looked to the Captain of the Coregos boat. "Which did you take, by the way? The King, or the Queen?"

"Um…Buzzub took them both, my Queen." The Captain reported. "He said you could take one of them when we came back, but…but…" He gestured to Betsy.

"I…see." Cor answered, nodding her head slowly as her eyes returned to Betsy.

"Please speak carefully, my wife!" King Gos nervously remarked. "She could burn us all!"

"So the legends say, yes." Cor responded, her eyes still on Betsy. "And she came to us on a flying ship. Most unusual. Yours is a most influential legend, starchild. The societies of Regos and Coregos would not be as they are without your contribution to our aggressive natures. Never again would we show ourselves as weak, and feeble, and easily cowed since last you were among us all those hundreds of years ago. According to the legends, at least."

"Don't make me punish you all for takin' slaves!" Betsy warned. "I'll burn you an' ev'ryone here! I will! Don't force my hand!"

"Indeed. Far be it for us to steal away those the starchild has chosen to serve her rather than the people of those islands she had conquered. Regos and Coregos, that is." Cor then looked past Betsy to the soldiers, sailors, and warriors behind the glitter-skinned visitor. "I want everyone from the expedition to fill this space here. Shut the doors once they are all in. No one gets in or out."

King Gos looked puzzled at this request. "Wife of mine, why are you…"

"Shhh." Queen Cor hissed. "You'll see."

Naturally, a mixture of nervousness and confusion was alternately upon the faces of each and every one of the soldiers, warriors, and sailors that gathered as a muttering sea of mostly male bodies, those outside the building having been brought in to join the others as the guards at the doors sealed the room from outside entry. When Queen Cor raised both of her hands, all voices silenced.

She then turned to Betsy. "Were it not for the starchild, we would never have recognized the necessity for power, conquest, and ruthlessness which has defined our ways since those ancient times. As the people you see before you only offered you fear in response to your appearance, I ask a boon of you. A great demonstration of your cosmic power."

Queen Cor then gestured to the silent mob. "Kill them."

Betsy turned her glittery head to the Queen, frowning in confusion. "Huh?"

"They have failed us. They must be punished." Cor calmly explained. "Kill them all."

King Gos sounded quite pleased with this idea as he spoke. "Indeed! I should like to see your great power myself! Go ahead and punish them, starchild. Leave no survivors."

Betsy now had a more angry expression on her face as she lifted a glitter-skinned finger. "They only do as they're ordered! I should punish th' both o' YOU!"

Cor sighed, lowering her head at this, looking defeated. "Indeed. As always, your legendary wisdom is flawless." She then turned to King Gos. "Husband, follow me, please."

Despite his confusion, Gos rose to his feet. Cor then led her husband, holding his hairy wrist, over to where the mob stood. She then turned to face Betsy.

"We have all failed you. These men, my husband, and I." Cor calmly remarked. "Destroy us all."

The expression on Gos's face now went pale with fright. His eyes boggled in shock as he looked to his wife. "Wha…are you _mad,_ wife of mine?"

"We have failed the mighty starchild." Cor shrugged as she spoke. "She must destroy us. The legends make this very clear."

Scanning around at the faces of the now dreadfully fearful soldiers, warriors, and sailors, Betsy hoped that she would hear the voice of the Wizard. Advise her about what to say. How to react. _Something!_ This was a seriously bad time for him to go silent! She was no longer levitating, either. She was now quite fearful that something had happened to Oscar. Betsy knew he would never betray her on a mere whim.

But there was one thing dreadfully apparent. Even if she _were_ to wield the powers of this legendary entity, there was no way she would enact such a barbaric request. She was an entertainer and an acrobat, not a monster.

Cor quirked an eyebrow, noting Betsy's hesitation. "You can't do it, can you?"

Betsy lowered her head lamentedly. "No."

Cor stepped over to the glitter-skinned girl, the taller woman looking imperiously down upon Betsy, who looked up at her with a more timid expression. "If you really were the starchild, you would _never_ show mercy. In fact, the true starchild was attracted to our genteel nature. She never completely destroyed us because, by her judgment, we were far too weak. It is clear to me now that you are a fraud."

"But…" King Gos now looked very confused. "…her skin sparkles! Clearly, a billion stars resonate within her!"

The ring finger of Cor's right hand had a large gold ring with a round ruby installed upon it. She placed the palm of her right hand upon Betsy's forehead, and the ruby glowed, having detected an enchantment. " _Klenz._ "

The Queen of Diamonds visage now evaporated, dissolving to reveal Betsy Bobbin's natural skin and hair color. Her glittery costume had become Betsy's plain white dress as well.

Cor's hand went from Betsy's forehead to her chin, grasping it angrily as she lifted the Oklahoma girl's head up. "I knew you were lying the moment I saw you. If you had levitated in here like the starchild always did, I probably would have been more receptive to your deception…but then, that would not have mattered, would it?" Her head turned to King Gos. "Husband...hold this deceptive little brat where she stands."

Gos now looked more angry than scared, and the others in the mob also looked considerably annoyed over the deception. The brutish monarch got behind Betsy and grabbed both of her arms with a painfully tight grip. " _Don't struggle._ " Gos growled. "Or I'll crush you with my bare hands!"

Cor lowered to a knee before Betsy, who now looked very nervous. "This must be your first time here, whoever you really are…but I won't ask your name. From now on, it will no longer be important to you. I have to admit, though. I admire your boldness, little girl. For that admiration, I will keep you with me."

"Y-you'd bett'r not do anythin' t' me!" Betsy warned, unable to keep her voice from shaking. "I…I know pow'rful people!"

"Like your name, they will no longer be important to you. The only person who will be important to you…" Cor's hands then lifted the crown up, revealing a gold headpiece with a large, glowing pink jewel which looked very much like an eye. This gem was positioned at her temple, right above the bridge of her nose. "…is me."

As the glow of the gem brightened, Betsy squinted her eyes shut and looked away, snapping her head to the side. Gos, however, grabbed her head and forced it back in front of Cor. He was able to hold Betsy's head in place with one strong hand as the fingers of the other hand went to pry a single eye open. All it took was for one eye, after all, to linger upon the light for mere seconds for the enchantment to take hold, and naturally compel the other eye to open.

Despite her struggling against what she was sure was going to happen to her, one eye lost itself to the strangely sweet glow emanating from Cor's forehead jewel, and the other eye slowly opened as her muscles went slack, and her mouth opened slightly. The eyes gradually went wide as Cor's head moved closer to Betsy's, the intensity of the enchantment filling every inch of the young girl with perpetual timidness and fear.

Gos watched with amusement as the girl's skin went from its natural appearance to a bright and hairless pink, and the roots of every follicle of her head of curly hair sent a familiar lavender color along to the ends, like liquid slowly traveling along a transparent tube.

Any semblance of bravado and willpower evaporated as Betsy began to shake terribly, the irises of her eyes being fused with a perpetual pink glow. When Cor covered the gem on her forehead by placing her crown back on her head, Betsy was left looking no different than the other pink-skinned, lavender-haired servants she had seen outside. She had lowered to her knees, as well, and she could not stop shaking with unavoidable fear as she looked fearfully up to the Queen, who was now smiling with satisfaction.

"Alas, more proof of this one's fraudulence." Cor mused to her smirking husband. "The true starchild is completely immune to magic." She then looked down to the pink-skinned girl quivering where she knelt. "What you have become is called a _thrall_. You will serve me from now on, doing anything I ask of you. You will please me by doing so. Would you like to please me, thrall?"

"Yyyy…yesss…yesss…I…I would! Yesyesyesyes…" Betsy's extremely nervous voice was now slightly higher in pitch as she spoke. She then bowed her head to the ground. "…a…anything for you! Anything…anything…"

"Stay close to me, thrall. Always. No matter what." She spoke softly unto her new acquisition. She then turned her attention to the mob, calling out to them in a voice which made Betsy cower fearfully below the Queen. "Get back out there and find the Regos slaves! Find this flying ship they are on! And do not return until you have acquired them all! If its crew cannot be enslaved, kill them!"

Buzzub turned to the mob now, his voice filled with rage. "KILL THEM! _KILL THEM!_ "

The mob sounded as one, most of them raising a weapon into the air. " _KILL THEM!_ "

Betsy wrapped her arms around Queen Cor's leg fearfully, easily intimidated by the sound of the mob's harsh voices as they screamed and yelled their way out of the throne room area. Cor felt Betsy's shaking arms wrapped around her leg, and she giggled amusedly.

She then looked to King Gos. "Leave me with my new thrall, husband. Send a tailor over here so we can have this one properly attired. And _you_ …" Cor turned a more severe gaze to Betsy. "… _you_ are going to listen to my rules, and the explanation of your tasks. Every single word of it."

" _Yes!_ Yes!" Betsy nodded rapidly, lowering her head to the ground, her voice lowering to a whisper. "Yesyesyesyesyes…always…a-always…"

Although he was a bit annoyed at not having a thrall of his own, Gos figured he could pick one from among the new influx of slaves for his wife to turn into a thrall. Stepping outside the throne room, he left his wife to re-educate Betsy Bobbin.

Or rather, the quivering thrall that used to be Betsy Bobbin.

* * *

Koup settled Pon to the ground carefully near the cottage that was being used as a temporary headquarters for the Legion, knowing that despite his being empowered by the strength-augmenting pearl, Pon was still an old man. The Lion, Bo, and the other members of the Legion of Courage gathered around him.

"Well? How'd it go?" The Lion asked.

"That…that place was more s..sturdy than I thought it would be." Pon admitted. "But I…I think the diversion worked. Have that…that tiger…and the rhino come back yet?"

"Shade's on lookout." Bo answered. "We haven't heard from her."

"Oh dear…" Pon now looked worried. "…that…that could be bad."

"Dey knew da risks, Pon." The Lion noted. "Dey wouldn't be wit da Legion if dey wasn't prepared ta take 'em. All we gotta hope now is dat we got Dorothy away from dose witches."

"Did someone mention Dorothy?" came a familiar voice a few feet behind the Lion.

All eyes and bodies turned to the smiling Scarecrow. "Y'know, a funny thing happened on the way to th…"

"LION!"

Dorothy burst forward, with the speed that comes with canine eagerness, on her digitigrade legs. She went right past the Scarecrow and stopped in front of the startled Lion. She then wrapped her furry arms around the Lion's own furry body. "Ohhh, Lion…it's so wonderful to see you again! _Rruff!_ "

The other members of the Legion were quite stunned as they gazed upon Dorothy's anthropomorphic appearance. The wide-eyed Lion himself was at a loss for words, but he was at least relieved to hear Dorothy's voice.

The Lion managed a smile as he lifted a padded paw and ran it along the fur on Dorothy's back, which seemed to compel a whine of approval from her now canine friend from Kansas. "It's…good ta see ya safe an'…well, sorta sound. Say…can ya steps back for a moment, Dorothy? I need ta get a good look at ya."

The canine girl nodded, and stepped a pace away from the Lion, whose gaze went over the brown-blotched white fur all over Dorothy's body, and the canine features such as the black spots above Dorothy's upper lip, the moist black canine nose, the flopped-over ears, and the wagging tail at the furry girl's posterior.

"Wow." Bo also got a good look at what Dorothy had become. "She really _is_ one of us now."

The Lion nodded, somewhat lamentedly. "Yeah…seems dat way, don't it?"

Dorothy shrugged. "Now I know what it's like to be Toto." She then scratched an itch at her right ear.

"It's all my fault, Dorothy." The Scarecrow remarked, his own head lowered. "I…I should have gone with you, at least."

"Heeeey, don't ya go talkin' like dat, straw-head. You was lookin' out for Dorothy's safety." The Lion noted. "How was _you_ ta know, even wit dem great brains o' yours, dat she'd be ambushed by witches?"

"De beeg boss man be right, me brudda." Koup remarked. "You bein' wit Doro'ty woulda made no deef'rence. Dey coulda burn you, an' take Doro'ty anyway."

"Besides…you brought her back here, right?" Trot added, making his own attempt to console the man made of straw. Her long, furry arms shrugged, smiling, as she spoke. "So you kinda-sorta made up for it."

The Scarecrow smiled, feeling a little better for the consolation as he looked to Koup's simian protégé. "I can't wait to see what you look like when we restore you, Trot."

Dorothy padded over to the young monkey with canine eagerness. "Trot? Is that your name? Hi! I'm Dorothy Gale! Nice to meet you!" Dorothy then frowned. "Wait a minute…'restore'? Oh, no…don't tell me _you_ were human, too!"

Trot now looked sullen as she nodded. "It was those witches. They...they tricked me into…"

"Now, now. That's all in the past." The Scarecrow quickly interjected, realizing that Trot's confession would cause unnecessary confusion. "Now that we've got _you_ back among us, Dorothy, I think we could get a _really_ good plan going to get us all out of this mess!"

"Well…as you can see, I…I'm not really myself." Dorothy looked down at her furry body. "It's not like I was when I was a patchwork girl, or a munchkin. In fact, it seems like what I've become has, well, more of a mind of its own."

The Lion placed a paw on Dorothy's furry shoulder. "You're disoriented. I'm gonna help ya wit dat. I've got a feelin' dat if I train ya up some in a few tricks, dat balance between what ya were…an', well, what ya are now…should do ya some good."

Dorothy looked uncertain with this. "You mean…you're gonna train me to…to be more…like a dog?"

"Not in the way you're thinking, Dorothy." Bo assured. "The most important part of what the Lion mentioned is _balance._ Balancing out the human you were with the dog you've become."

"They're really good teachers, Dorothy." Trot noted, loping over to the canine girl. "I know just what they're talking about. I learned all kinds of tricks about being a monkey from Koup. It's made me feel, well, a little more _natural_. Like, I could be a monkey, and be me, too. Know what I mean?"

Dorothy slowly nodded in her comprehension. "I…I think I understand." She then turned to the Lion. "Whenever you want to begin, I'm ready."

"T' be honest, ya might hafta help _me_ out as we go, Dorothy." The Lion admitted. "Seein' as how you've been around Toto more den I have."

"Just keep asking yourself, Dorothy…" The Scarecrow offered, placing a stuffed hand on her furry shoulder. "…'what would Toto do?'"

Dorothy thought on this as Pon stepped over to the Lion, having come from the cellar of the cottage that was ordained their headquarters. "Your Legion musta really gave those girls a…a real wallop. They're still…still out co…" He then noticed Dorothy. "…oh, hello. I…I'm Pon. You must be Dorothy."

The canine girl nodded, smiling. "Dorothy Gale. Nice to meet you, Pon."

"Now dat we've got Dorothy back wit us, you should get down dere an be ready ta question dose apprentices, straw-head." The Lion suggested. "When dey gets ta wakin' up, I need you ta be dere, ready ta makes wit dat interra-gatin'."

"Will do, Chief!" The Scarecrow stopped near Dorothy on his way to the nearby cottage. "Hard to believe he used to be so cowardly, eh?"

"Hard ta believe it took a Th-D for ya ta realize ya already had dat brain ya wanted." The Lion countered, with an accompanying smirk.

The Scarecrow pointed to his leonine friend, smiling. " _Touche'!_ " He then resumed his trip to the headquarters cellar.

The unicorn strategist, Ali, clopped over to the Lion next. "We should relocate. We haven't heard from Rouse or Biff. Our location could have been compromised."

Brocius stepped over, having overheard. "If they've got Biff under their control, that could be very bad for us. Those witches could command him to destroy every cottage in Jinxland to gain leverage on us."

"Maybe if we spread ourselves out among the other cottages?" Bo suggested.

"If Brocius is right, being spread out would not matter." Ali countered.

The Lion nodded. "Not da kinda mess I'd want on my paws."

Bo looked to the canine girl. "Dorothy? What do you think? Any ideas?"

Dorothy thought what she had overheard through for a moment. She then looked to the Lion. "You said we had apprentices? How many?"

"Seven." The Lion answered. "All of 'em loyal ta dose witches. Dey're out cold in da cellar of our HQ."

"The only way we're gonna fight witches is with a witch on _our_ side." Dorothy surmised aloud. "Unless there's a member of the Legion who knows magic."

"Which there isn't, unfortunately." Bo admitted.

"Then we'll need to see if any of those apprentices would be willing to help us." Dorothy remarked. "If what happened to me and Trot is any indication, these are very powerful witches. Without the help of one of them, our chances of getting out of all this is gonna be slim. Maybe there's something they all want?"

"Yeah." Trot's tone sounded regretful. "Me. They think I have that stone."

Dorothy's head tilted to the side. "Stone?"

"I…I was tricked into using it on the girl with the flowers on her head." Trot admitted, her simian head lowered. "The same thing happened to her friends. A tiger, a tin man, and that Glinda woman. Then they turned me into this." She indicated her own monkey form. "All I wanted was to find my friend. Cap'n Bill."

Dorothy sighed upon hearing this. The situation sounded all too familiar. Being blamed for an unintentional wrong. Except in this case, Trot was likely guided by a deception. Perhaps fooled into thinking someone in Ozma's group, if not Ozma herself, was evil.

The canine girl lowered, instinctively, to a dog's sitting position in front of Trot, despite her human urge to simply take a knee in front of her. "Trot…do you honestly have this stone with you?"

"I…I don't know." Trot replied, her voice quietly distressed. "I can't remember. If they were your friends, I…I'm sorry…"

"Shhhh. Calm down. Don't worry. You're among friends." Dorothy quietly assured. "If you say you were tricked by wicked witches, I believe you. But we have to try and remember what it is they want, and what happened to it. Do you remember what you did with it when you had it last?"

"Gloria took it from me." Trot answered. "I don't remember anything after that. It was like I…I blacked out or something. When I woke up, I saw what they turned me into. I…I knew I had to escape that castle. To get away from them."

"And you don't recall how much time had gone by since you blacked out?" Dorothy wondered aloud.

Trot shook her head. "Not a lot of time, though."

Brocius made an inquiry of his own. "Do you remember seeing the faces of any of the apprentices we captured before you blacked out?"

This time, Trot nodded. "Yeah. They were there."

Bo's expression brightened. "One of them might have seen what happened to the stone."

Ali nodded. "Or what Trot might have done with it." He turned his equine gaze to Trot. "Were you wearing any clothes when you blacked out?"

"Yes." Trot replied. "But they were gone when I woke up."

"And if dey steell teenk she 'as it, De stone not be in de clothes." Koup concluded.

Brocius rubbed his simian chin as he looked down at Trot with a thoughtful expression. "So you blacked out. Probably because of a spell, but you weren't asleep. That's something we can confirm with the apprentices." The broad-bodied gorilla then turned to the Lion. "I'm gonna venture a guess that Trot picked it up and swallowed it, commander. She couldn't have been of sound mind to know what it was. For all she knew, it might have been a grape."

"An enchantment that reduces intelligence." Bo surmised. "If we confirm that she was up and about from the apprentices, then I'll buy Trot swallowing it."

The former California girl rubbed at her round belly. "But…if I did swallow it, how come I didn't turn to stone?"

"It's probably something you have to actually hold in your hand and use." Brocius surmised. "Otherwise, it's just a harmless rock."

Shade's voice screamed the warning in that moment. " _INCOMIIING!_ "

A loud _THUMP_ followed, and the group moved towards the source of the sound. As they got closer, they heard a familiar voice groan painfully.

The source was revealed to be Biff.

The Lion, Bo, and Dorothy were the first to get close to him as he panted labored breaths. He looked like he was banged up pretty bad, too, and his flesh seemed to be smouldering. Feeling the heat coming off of him, the group did not get too close to the weary rhino.

"I…I didn't…talk. I wouldn't…" were Biff's first words.

"Slow breaths, brother." Brocius knelt near the rhino's head. "Remember your training."

"Dose witches didn't try ta get inside ya head, did dey?" The Lion asked.

"No…" Biff confirmed. "…but…they have…R-Rouse. She…she's with them…she…leaped in…"

Bo lowered her head regretfully, her eyes closed. The grip on her staff tightened. "Damn you, Rouse. You were supposed to be _backup!_ "

"They…burned me. H…heat spells…" Biff fought through the agony to get the words out. "…I was on another plane, man…they got…nothing…from me…"

Bo looked to the Lion. "He's no good to us like this, commander. He needs to rest."

"Agreed." The Lion nodded. "We're gonna need ta wait 'till he…"

But Biff rose to all four of his legs in the next moment, moving towards the HQ cottage. "I can make it…I…I can make it…courage…always…"

"Slow steps, brother." Ali clopped alongside the brave rhino, who looked to be in excruciating pain as he moved. "Don't rush it."

Dorothy caught herself in a canine whine as she watched Biff move towards the cottage with concern. But she then felt pleasant sensations running through her body as a paw began to scratch comfortably at the side of her furry neck, compelling her to close her eyes and angle her head approvingly and instinctively towards the area where she was being rubbed.

The paw was the Lion's. "Don't worry, Dorothy." The leonine monarch assured. "Biff's da strongest of us next ta Brawn. He'll be fine once he settles in for a nap."

The canine girl felt surprisingly exhausted once the Lion pulled his paw away. "Wow…that…that felt _nice_ …"

The Lion shrugged, smiling. "I guess now ya know why Toto likes when ya do that, eh?"

"I…I guess it's because…I know I'm among friends." Dorothy surmised. She then placed her padded hands against the Lion's furry chest, smiling. "Like you." She then turned to Bo, placing her hands on the panda's chest. "And you."

Dorothy then turned to no one in particular, staring forward with a more serious expression. "But…if it were one of those nasty witches, I…I'd probably wanna…" She felt angry feelings stir within her. "…I…I'd wanna… _bite_ them! Grrr… _nnnnasty_ old witches! _Rrruff!_ "

"Well, I don't see no nasty witches around here right now, kid, so ya can ease down." The Lion advised, placing his paw on Dorothy's furry shoulder. He held his head up proudly, smiling, as he spoke. "Ya got da King a' da Forest lookin' after ya now."

Dorothy nodded, the smile back on her furry face. "That's right. You're the King of the beasts of the Quadling Country." She then bowed, humbly, before her leonine friend. "And since I'm one of those beasts for the time being, I am at your service…my king."

Bo glanced to the Lion. "Catches on fast, doesn't she?"

The blushing Lion, however, sounded bashful as he spoke. "Ohhh, come on now, Dorothy…you an' I are old friends. Ya don't need ta bow ta me."

"No, Dorothy is right, commander." Brocius corrected. "For as long as she's gonna be this way, she's no different from any of the other beasts in the Quadling Country, and since Jinxland is _in_ the Quadling Country…"

"Brocius!" The Lion interjected, in an alarmed tone. "Come on! Let's try an' remember dat dis was da girlie who helped me find my C-hourage!"

"She can be friend _and_ subject, beeg boss." Koup offered. "I teenk dere be no question of 'er _loyalty,_ yes?"

"And as an honorary member, she _did_ take the oath, commander." Bo reminded. "One of those oaths clearly places emphasis on the loyalty of all beasts to the King."

"Even eef dey once be human, boss." Koup added.

The Lion sighed, still troubled. "Yeah, but I never expected…"

"Lion…honestly. _I don't mind being one of your subordinates!_ " Dorothy interjected, padding over to his flustered friend. "You're gonna teach me things anyway, aren't you? And Koup's right. You _know_ I'm gonna be _completely_ loyal to you and the Legion. I don't want any special treatment, either. We're all in this together as a team. You, me, Trot, and all the other beasts under your command. Your Legion of Courage is gonna _save_ Jinxland from those witches, and your Legion of Courage is gonna free _everyone_ from the spell that made them all stone statues. We're all with you, your majesty. Ready, willing, and able!"

"Me too!" Trot nodded emphatically.

"You know me, commander." Brocius remarked. "I'm _always_ ready."

The Lion's eyes were on Koup as the gorilla spoke. He looked to be quite deep in thought. When the winged baboon noticed this, he tilted his head curiously.

Dorothy also noticed this. "What's your thinking, your majesty?"

The leonine commander of the Legion glanced to Dorothy. "I guess ya could say I'm thinkin' outside da box wit dis." His feline eyes then angled upward, towards the barrier preventing any aerial exit from Jinxland. "Koup can't fly up an' out, but…I wonder how long it would take ta get a tunnel made?" He then traced a straight-line pattern in the air with his paw to illustrate his thinking. "A tunnel dat goes from a cottage cellar to da gorge. If we can break through dat, we'll have a passage outta Jinxland."

Bo's eyes widened. "Are you suggesting a _retreat,_ commander?"

"Absolutely not." The Lion emphatically countered. He then turned his gaze to Dorothy. "But we could use a little more air support, if ya know what I mean."

Dorothy frowned in confusion at first, but she then ventured a guess. "So…you want to send Koup out to…to find the Golden Cap?"

"Mmmm. Veeeery crafty teenkeeng, boss." Koup nodded thoughtfully as he spoke. "I like eet."

Bo looked skeptical. "Do you know where the cap is though, Koup?"

"Hopefully, it's not with the monkeys themselves." Brocius warily observed. "The monkeys and the baboons still aren't the best of friends, as I'm sure you know, Koup."

"Mmm. Sadly true. De East Weetch see ta dat loong ago." Koup responded. "But dat weetch be gone, an' I an' I be Legion o' Courage, brudda. An' eef dey know Gleenda be frozen, I teenk dey 'elp us."

Brocius was now thoughtful of this plan as he rubbed his simian chin in contemplation. "We could also get all those statues we collected out of Jinxland, too. Keep the witches from using them as leverage."

Bo nodded. "I suppose you want Brawn on tunnel duty, commander?"

"And Pon, once we can find a spade for 'im." The Lion replied.

" _Pon?_ But…" Bo stopped herself. "…oh yeah, his pearl."

Practically on cue, the Lion heard the old man behind him. "Will…will this do, sir?"

Sure enough, Pon had found a shovel. Bo stepped over and gestured to have the old gardener hand it to her. Examining the shovel's durability, she handed it back to Pon. "Yeah, that should do. Just don't overdo your digging, or the wood's gonna start cracking."

"We'll use HQ's cellar. Dat's why Ali an' I picked it." The Lion remarked. "It's not only da farthest of da cottages, it's also da closest ta dat gorge."

"I'll go get Brawn." Bo began padding over to where she knew the bear had been stationed, having been ordained one of the group's lookouts.

Trot looked to Koup with a sullen expression. "I wish I had wings. I wanna go with you."

"I'd consider that a wise move, considering you have something they want which could petrify us all." Ali thoughtfully observed. "But there's the potential of a tactical advantage in having you here with us, Trot."

"Ali be right, seestah." Koup placed a simian hand on Trot's furry shoulder. "You be careful now. Don't ya be gettin' close ta dem weetches, an' be as fast an' as smart as we always be. Wave dat monkey flag high, Trot, while ya still got eet."

Trot then stepped in closer to Koup and wrapped her long, simian arms around him to hug him tightly. The winged baboon smiled as he returned the affectionate hug. "I be back, seestah. I promise."

Koup then released her and turned away…but he then felt a solid tapping on his shoulder. Turning back around to face Trot, he saw something he did not expect.

He saw Trot's monkey tail swaying slowly in front of him, revealed to have been the source of the tapping.

"You be careful too, Koup." Trot remarked.

"Oooooh! Ya usin' ya tail at long last." Koup smiled proudly. He then placed a hand against Trot's simian cheek. "I an' I be proud a' ya, seestah."

"Follow me, Trot. We need to talk strategy." Ali clopped towards another empty cottage, the former California girl following him over.

Dorothy and the Lion thoughtfully watched Ali and Trot move away for their chat. "Dat's one brave girlie. Kinda reminds me o' _you,_ ya know."

The canine girl nodded in agreement. "I hope we can find her friend."

"Maybe we can get you ta sniff 'im out, eh?" The Lion gave Dorothy a nudge, smiling. "C'mon, doggie. Let's go get ya trained up. Ya betta pay close attention, too. No matta what I ask ya ta do, ya gotta trust me. Okay?"

Dorothy bowed again. "As you wish, my king."

* * *

The freed Pingaree prisoners from the Regos warboat…including King Kitticut and Queen Garee…craned their heads over the side of the _O.D. Betsy Bobbin_ to look down as Fyter…who found the spyglass Betsy had used inside her Captain's coat…peered through the open instrument to get a closer look at the Regos warboat and the Coregos warboat sailing around the nonestic waters below. He got the magnification as close to the decks of each ship as he could, scanning for any trace of Betsy.

But there was none. No trace of Betsy at all.

Hank stood beside Fyter as he examined the returning boats. "Anythin'?"

Fyter shook his head, lowering the spyglass. "They know we're up here, though. I saw heads looking up. One of them pointed to us."

"But…isn't your friend this 'starchild' they mentioned?" Kitticut asked.

"That was blind luck, I'm afraid." Hank replied as he clopped around to face the freed Pingaree ruler. "Betsy had a spell cast upon 'er t' make 'er look like she did, an' that was for a circus act. We didn't know a thing 'bout that starchild stuff."

"Does anyone here know a little more about it?" Fyter asked his passengers.

"I do." Queen Garee stepped forward. "I can tell you what I know. The starchild is more or less the reason why the people of Regos and Coregos developed to become the conquest-savvy societies they are today after seven wars they waged between each other. The starchild came from the skies wanting slaves. When they conceded to her demand after a display of her destructive power, she scolded them both…and I should note that back then, they were more primitive tribes…for their cowardice. Their inability to fight back. She took about twenty-five percent of the populace of each, according to the legends, before she left. From then on, Regos and Coregos vowed that they would never again be humiliated as they were when the starchild visited."

"Now _wait_ a minute." Scraps dismounted the pedal area and stepped over to the Queen. "Betsy doesn't take slaves! She isn't even a _starchild!_ She's my friend!"

"What about the rulers of Regos and Coregos?" Fyter asked. "Are they believers in this legend?"

"As Gos is not as smart as his wife, I'm certain he's gullible enough to buy it." King Kitticut replied. "Queen Cor, on the other hand, is far more dangerous."

"If your friend is not the starchild, and she isn't on those boats," One of the other freed Pingaree citizens remarked. "She's probably a thrall by now."

Fyter, Hank, and Scraps spoke as one. "Thrall?"

"That's what Queen Cor does to those she deems the weakest, and the young, that come before her." Garee explained. "She uses a magic gem that sits upon her forehead, attached to a gold diadem beneath her crown. We don't know where or how she found it, but she uses it to turn humans into their pink-skinned servants. They become ultra-submissive, and very, _very_ afraid. All they need to do is crack a whip near them and they do whatever they're commanded to do. It's a particularly horrid life to be bound to."

"Oh no. No no no no no." Scraps shook her head, a troubled expression on her patchwork face. "That's not happening to _my_ Betsy!"

"Scraps, if she isn't on those boats, or at least below decks, which I very much doubt," Fyter reasoned. "then we have to assume the worst."

"NO!" Scraps yelled, looking more serious than she had ever been. She turned to Hank and put her hands to her waist. "You're First Mate! So do some First-Mating and let's go get Betsy back!"

"We can't get next t' those ships, Scraps." Hank reminded. "We've got no weapons t' fight 'em with."

"If we get down low enough, maybe I can leap on board and fight my way below. See if Betsy is there." Fyter suggested. "This ship may not be armed, but I always am."

"There's a lot o' trained fight'rs aboard those ships." Hank noted. "Even if they can't hurt you, they could still ov'rwhelm you. They could trip an' tie you up, too."

"How about just dropping our ship onto them?" Scraps suggested. "Our ship is just as big as their warboats!"

"T' be frank, I don't like that idea at all, Scraps." Hank responded. "Neither would Betsy."

"Well, we can't just stay up here and do _nothing!_ " Scraps sounded quite distraught. "Somebody give me an idea!"

"I would say we're at a stalemate here." Fyter observed. "They won't leave without us surrendering the people from Pingaree, which we'll never do, and they can't fire on us because we're too high up. But, they know we're here, so they won't leave."

Most of the other liberated, yet concerned citizens of Pingaree overheard the conversations going on between the First Mate and his odd-looking crew. Two beautiful young women in particular whispered between themselves once Fyter had acknowledged the stalemate, after which one of them made her way towards the right starboard side of the dirigible. Looking straight down, she saw that directly below the craft was a clear, unobstructed body of the nonestic ocean.

One of the other pearl-fishers noticed the young woman look over the edge of the dirigible. "Chloe?" The man began walking warily towards her. "What are you…HEY!"

Before anyone could say anything, Chloe had vaulted over the edge and was now hurtling down towards the water! The others on the _Betsy Bobbin_ …Fyter, Scraps, and Hank included…hurried over to the right starboard side. They saw that Chloe had straightened her body out as she sped towards the waters far below. She eventually penetrated the ocean surface like a missile going straight down, disappearing beneath it without any manner of loud splash.

"Hmph!" Scraps observed as the confused occupants of the dirigible stepped back from the edge of the vessel. "She picked a heck of a time to go for a swim!"

"I hope she didn't lose faith in us." Hank wondered aloud.

"Chloe? She's not like that at all." The young woman Chloe was in conversation with stepped forward. "She still likes you. And your crew."

"Then why did she just dive over the edge, Madison?" One of the pearl-fishers asked.

Madison shrugged, smiling meekly. "She wanted to go for a swim."

* * *

Feeling the fur stream behind her as she padded through the forests and plains of Jinxland as fast as she could was quite satisfying to the anthropomorphic dog Dorothy had become.

The Lion called it the roam. An urge most animals get to race around as fast as they can. Realizing that the witches could manifest at any time, the Lion had Brocius and Bo guarding the wide, rural training area the Lion had chosen. At no point were there any occurrences as Dorothy engaged in her first roam.

Upon picking up evidence of a scent she was unaware of, the Lion had instructed her to stop, and follow the scent to its source. This would effectively train Dorothy's canine instinct. The Lion had learned a bit about canine instinct from observations of his close friend's dog, Toto, during Dorothy's adventures as a munchkin.

"Lemme go! Lemme go! I dint do nuffin'!"

Dorothy had instinctively pounced upon a lemur, whose scent she had picked up on. Giggling, her furry head tilted to the side. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you." The anthro dog then lifted the paw holding the lemur fast, allowing the creature to flee. "There you go."

The jittery lemur tilted its head back and forth curiously, looking wary that this strange, furry, human-like creature would make another unexpected move. All she was doing, however, was smiling down at it. Apparently, this one was also nice. Like the panther who had helped it out of its previous predicament.

The lemur shrugged. "Tenk yooooou!" Within seconds, the lemur was gone.

The Lion stepped over next to Dorothy. "Found yerself a lemur, eh? Not bad. Dose jittery lil' critters are quick!"

"It's strange, your majesty." Dorothy thoughtfully observed. "It…just seems to come natural to me. Following a scent, going as fast as I can…it's like I'm not even _thinking_ about it."

"Dat's what instinct is all about, girlie." The Lion replied. "It's like an extra muscle. One dat stays wit ya 'till ya need it. It's…kinda like someone grabbin' ya by da wrist an' pullin' yas down a path, know what I mean?"

Dorothy attentively nodded, eager to learn more. "Yes, my king. I know exactly what you mean. Is it _always_ like that?"

"Well…wit creatures like me an' some a' da Legion, it's a bit more tough ta deal wit." The Lion responded. "I mean…we're a bit more _wild_ compared ta dogs. Where you come from, after all, animals can't always get deir meat from plants. Dey's gotta do it da _hard_ way, an' as I'm sure ya know, it's nevah pleasant."

"You mean…they _hunt_ for their food, right?"

The Lion nodded. "Yup. I had ta get my buddy, da Tiger, off dat habit. Did I evah tell yas why dey call 'im da Hungry Tiger, Dorothy?"

The anthro dog shrugged. "He's always hungry?"

"Right…but for _what?_ " The Lion responded. "Dey told me he's got a cravin' for _fat babies_."

A look of revulsion was on Dorothy's furry face now. "That's _horrible!_ "

"I felt da same way when dey first told me." The Lion replied. "But da strange ting about it is dat he's _heard_ dat dey're good eatin's, but he's nevah really _eaten_ one. Sometin' inside dat big ol' kitty cat always stops 'im whenever he happens ta see a fat baby."

"Hmmm." A thoughtful expression was on the canine girl's face. "A hunter with a conscience. So he's always hungry? Doesn't he get fed at all? I mean…doesn't he like _other_ kinds of food?"

"Oh, yeah, sure!" The Lion confirmed. "On an average day, da Tiger goes ovah ta de Emerald City, an' Jellia Jamb feeds 'im plenty a' raw meats. Big slabs of 'em. Jellia told me Ozma conjures 'em up. More dan enough ta last 'im a full day. Still…I always keep an eye on 'im wheneva we're around kids."

"Well, I certainly won't eat anything living, my king." Dorothy assured. An urge then hit her. "Although…a big slab of meat…" she licked around her furry mouth. "… _that_ sounds…that sounds…"

The Lion arched an eyebrow. "Delicious?" He placed a paw on Dorothy's furry shoulder. "Rrrrippin' raw pieces a' meat off da slab, an' chewin' it up real good…an' swallowin' all dat yummy meat down?"

Dorothy shuddered with anticipation, her eyes wide as she spoke. "Oooooh…I…I wish I had some nice, fresh meat in front of me _RrRrRright now!_ _Rrruff!_ "

The Lion laughed hearing Dorothy's reaction, and he gave her a pleasant scratching at the back of her furry neck with a paw, visibly calming her. "Well, maybe before ya get changed back, we can have Jellia feed ya some. Ya can share it wit Toto, too. Wouldn't dat be nice?"

"Mmmmmh…" The canine girl whined approvingly as she closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the pleasant scratching. "…I…I can't imagine how Toto would react if he…he saw me like this…"

"Well, from what I know o' dogs, he could go's barkin' at ya for a while. Cautiously. I mean, let's face it…you're an awfully _big_ dog." The Lion explained, stepping away from Dorothy to act out his descriptions. "Den? He'd sniff ya. All curious-like. An' maybe he'd says to himself…'Hey! Dat girlie smells kinda familiar! Could it be…dat my best friend Dorothy's a _dog_ now? Jus' like _me?_ '"

Dorothy's fluffy tail wagged wildly as she giggled, feeling excited by the thought of being able to play with Toto. "We'd probably be chasing each other all over the place!"

"Yeah, but dat's playin' around." The Lion looked serious again. "An' dose witches ain't playin' around, Dorothy, so let's get back ta yer trainin'. Now…where was we? Oh yeah…"

 _INSTINCT!_

 _Dis time you'll spend, my furry friend, is about a common thread!  
_ _Wit' ev'ry sniff an' ev'ry whiff, it's a message to yer head!  
_ _Yer on all fours in da great outdoors, yer fur keepin' ya warm!  
_ _I won't discourage, so show some courage while yer wearin' dat playful form!_

 _I'll show ya what it means ta be a beast!  
_ _Ta roam through da plains, da forests an' da lanes!  
_ _It's kinda liberatin', ta say da least,  
_ _but it's awful succinct, when ya use yer instinct!_

 _Now follow my lead, like a wild stampede, as we lapse into a roam!  
_ _No traffic laws for our padded paws, and it makes ya feel at home!  
_ _But always smell, so's you can tell if somethin's drawin' near,  
_ _so you can stop an' get da drop on a rabbit hoppin' here!_

They stopped their roam, and Dorothy began sniffing around the area, having picked up on the scent the Lion had identified. When she caught a flash of white fur, the canine girl went into a crouch, instinctively preparing to pounce upon the curious and idle Jinxland rabbit.

Her first pounce failed, as she had made excessive noise, but she followed after the rabbit as quickly as she could. Instinct clearly took over as she chose a route which allowed her to intercept the rabbit with her next pounce.

Dorothy smiled in satisfaction as the rabbit squirmed beneath her, mumbling words the canine girl could not make out. "Gotcha."

"Heeeeey…not bad, girlie, yer a fast learner!" The Lion observed as Dorothy rose to her digitigrade feet, cradling the rabbit in her arms. "Must be all dat time ya spent wit Toto."

The rabbit shook its head as if coming out of a dizzy spell. "Ptooey! All that fur! 'Bout time ya let me breathe!" The rabbit remarked, in a female voice. "Sheesh!"

"I hope I didn't hurt you." Dorothy looked down to the rabbit worriedly. "Are you okay?"

"Once you let me go on my way, I will be!" The rabbit responded frumpily. "Don't you go pouncin' on me again! It's _rude!_ "

Blushing, Dorothy released the rabbit, who hopped away quickly.

The smiling Lion put an arm around the canine girl's shoulders. Dorothy also smiled as she looked to her king.

 _Now ya know what it means ta be a beast?  
_ _Ta roam through da plains, da forests an' da lanes?_

Dorothy thoughtfully nodded as she replied to the Lion.

 _It really is liberating, to say the least.  
_ _When I used my instinct, that rabbit was distinct!_

 _But don't you think I'm on the brink of losing who I was?  
_ _Performing tricks and fetching sticks as a human, just because?_

The worried canine girl then lowered her furry posterior onto a fallen log nearby.

 _Such a nasty pitch. That mean ol' witch…she got me really good!  
_ _Somehow, I bet I'm_ _still_ _her pet as I sit here on the wood.  
_ _Is it nature's way for me to say that this isn't the toughest slog?  
_ _If I learn so quick, then I might stick to being a witch's dog._

A horrid thought, and one the Lion couldn't easily dismiss. Especially if her current state was the result of magic.

The Lion grabbed Dorothy's furry wrist and pulled her into a tight embrace. He then stared right into the canine girl's worried eyes with a look of conviction.

 _STOP that talk! Let's go for a walk! We don't need all dat fuss!  
_ _So show some fight! Let's make tings right an' show yer one of US!  
_ _Let's make a stand by da King's command! Da Lion's word is LAW!_

Dorothy nodded emphatically, coming out of her uncertainty at the sound of the Lion's voice.

 _You're right, my King! Let's do this thing, and stop this hem and haw!_

The canine girl jumped onto and stood upon the log as she cried out with her own conviction, raising a paw to the skies above in emphasis of her words.

 _'Cause THAT'S what it means to be a beast!  
_ _We need to FIGHT through the plains, the forests, and the lanes!  
_ _To save all our friends, to say the least!  
_ _Let's make it all distinct…_

She leaped down next to the Lion, his voice joining lyrically with hers.

 _…and-use-our-in-stiiiiiiiinct!_

Dorothy then picked up the scent of hay. As the scent was getting stronger, she knew someone quite familiar to her was coming, and she quickly moved in the direction of the scent…

…and pounced upon the approaching Scarecrow, clearly startling him.

Dorothy smiled as she looked down upon her straw-stuffed friend. "Gotcha."

"Huh? OH! Dorothy! It's you!" The Scarecrow looked a little more relaxed now. "Um…how's your training going? Feel a little more comfortable in all that fur?"

"Mm-hmm!" Dorothy nodded as she rose to her digitigrade legs, smiling. "The Lion's a really good teacher."

The Lion himself walked over to the two of them as Dorothy helped the Scarecrow to his feet. "Get anythin' outta dose witch-girlies, straw-head?"

"Well…we have names now, and definite numbers. Looks like we're dealing with a coven thirteen witches strong. Six full witches, seven apprentices." The Scarecrow reported. "I also confirmed that Trot _did_ swallow that stone."

"Hmmm…thirteen witches. Den dere's dat Gloria dame, an' dat guy we clobbered." The Lion observed, thinking on this new information.

Dorothy ventured a thought. "Were you able to figure out how loyal those apprentices are to the other witches?"

"Oh, if dere bein' trained, I'd think dere all loyal enough, Dorothy." The Lion responded. "I wouldn't trust any of 'em who might say uddawise."

"Save one."

The heads of the leonine monarch and the canine girl turned to the Scarecrow upon hearing his words. Curious expressions were on their faces.

The straw-stuffed advisor confidently smiled. "Her name is Tilda."

* * *

Aboard the docked warboat, Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil…under the guidance of the white pearl's wisdom, which was being mentally fed to Inga…managed to avoid the notice of the Coregos soldiers as they unloaded their Pingaree captives, who had sworn that they would not betray the young prince and his friends. The trio knew where to move, and when, to avoid being noticed. Even Rinkitink's large body was able to find concealment below decks as per Inga's whispered advice.

They needed to wait, however, until the late evening hours, when the presence of the soldiers walking the docks was relatively thin, before the trio finally left the shadows of their hiding spaces within the warboat. Making their way across the docks to the island's partially-blackened countryside…this being the result of various military drills and training exercises…there were occasions where a lingering guard's attention was diverted to unavoidable sounds being made, and the trio needed to hurry to avoid being noticed. Fortunately, with the white pearl's help, they were able to avoid detection.

The countryside. That was where Inga was guiding the round-bodied monarch and his curmudgeonly steed towards. As exercises were never conducted at such a late hour, the area was largely empty of any military presence. With Rinkitink's help, Inga was able to provide a couple of crude, but effective torches from the remnants of several fallen trees in the area. The somewhat crooked and thin branches bundled together for these torches were large enough for their lights…one for Inga, the other for Rinkitink…to last for most of the night.

It was with the aid of these light sources that Inga was able to find a cave mouth along the base of a mountain range. Their steps were slow and cautious as they entered, and the interior was hollow enough to echo their footsteps along with the drips of moisture they occasionally heard within the musty blackness of the cave.

As Inga walked, however, his right foot struck a hard shape, and he stumbled forward, the torch dropping forward a couple of inches. As the ground was damp soil, the impact did not hurt much.

It didn't help that Rinkitink always used such minor misfortunes as grist for his humor mill. "Oops! Did you have a nice 'trip', good Prince? Ho ho ha ha hee hee _heeee!_ "

Inga and Bilbil sighed at this even as Rinkitink offered a hand to pull the young prince back up. Grabbing the fallen torch, he looked over to the solid object his foot had struck, bringing the light over to it…

…and the boy gasped at the sight of a human man with a horrified gaze, his arm raised up to try and shield himself from something which was apparently behind where Inga was standing. His outfit suggested that he was a peasant.

Except it was not so much a human man as it was a hard, gray stone semblance of one, and a very detailed semblance, at that.

Rinkitink stepped backwards as he made his next attempt at humor. "If you ask me, you've found a working stiff."

As he began to giggle, however, he backed into a similar hard obstacle. Startled, the fat monarch spun around with his flaming light…

…and shrieked quite girlishly.

This unfortunate human female…who was also in a peasant's garb…was standing, apparently, when she was hit by the enchantment that apparently transmuted her flesh to gray stone. She, too, had a horrified expression on her face.

The wisdom of the white pearl confirmed Inga's suspicions as they examined the petrified bodies. "These were once people." Inga then frowned in his surprise over the white pearl's provided wisdom. " _Royal_ people?"

"Hey…" It was Bilbil's voice. "…a little light over _here_ would be nice."

Inga and Rinkitink moved toward where the goat was standing in the darkness, further away from where the two apparently royal victims had been petrified.

The flaming light sources revealed what looked to be a most vile-looking and monstrous woman, and such was her extreme ugliness that Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil stood petrified with fear, unable to move, upon the mere sight of this creature, who had a snake-scaled head, a long, protruding reptillian tongue, tusks similar to those of a boar, and a head full of angry snakes somehow serving as the humanoid creature's hair.

It was to the benefit of the trio, however, that this horrible creature had _also_ been turned to stone.

It was Rinkitink, however, who noticed one of the distinct oddities of this statue, and he moved in to take a closer look. He saw that one of the creature's eyes had been broken, and only half of it was intact.

The other eye, however, looked to have been cleanly removed, as a spherical impression was where the eye should be.

Even in the face of this horrible appearance, Rinkitink couldn't help himself. "Here's _looking_ at you, my dear. Ho ho hee hee hee _heeeee!_ "

Bilbil, however, looked to the prince. "Inga? What _is_ this… _thing?_ "

"Awfully lethal hairstyle, I must say." Rinkitink quipped yet again, looking over the statue's threatening pose. "Must have had a _venomous_ personality." And again, the King of his namesake province giggled.

"All I'm getting is…'gor-gon'." Inga replied. "S…Sssstheno. I…I think that's its name. Stheno."

Rinkitink gestured to the statue's damaged head. "I'd say she was blind to her…"

"ENOUGH!" Bilbil angrily yelled, his voice echoing throughout the cave, which did not go much deeper than where the gorgon had been petrified.

"Hey! Hey! Try not to make too much noise!" Inga advised, his voice low. He then turned his attention back to the statue, and he was able to spot what Rinkitink was alluding to.

As his mind began to wonder why the eye areas looked as they did, the white pearl once again fed Inga the basics. "One of those eyes was…stolen."

"Heh. Memento." Bilbil guessed.

Rinkitink, however, thought on what Inga had said. "Gorgons. Hmmm…yes, I think the scholars in our capital city of Gilgad spoke of those creatures. According to them, they come from a faraway land called Greece. Horrible beasts whose very gaze could turn people into stone. Such was their curse."

As the influx of wisdom made his head throb a bit, he placed the white pearl into a pocket of his outfit. "But why would someone want to steal one of Stheno's eyes _after_ she was turned to stone?"

"Like I said. Memento." Bilbil responded.

Rinkitink shrugged. "Perhaps the thief thought that even as a stone semblance, the eye had the power to petrify. The scholars spoke of a similar creature called a Medusa, who could also turn people to stone with her gaze. She had been slain by a young hero named Perseus, but her severed head was still capable of petrifying any who looked upon the head's eyes."

"Hmmm." Inga looked to the horrendous creature. "I wonder if the thief thought Stheno was Medusa."

"Hey… _you're_ the one with the white pearl." Bilbil reminded.

But Inga shook his head. "That thing was giving me a headache. I put it away. I can always find out more in the morning, after I've had some sleep. I'm starving, too."

"As am I." Rinkitink looked around the cave with his torch, but not seeing anything remotely resembling food. "Doesn't look like we'll get anything edible in here, though."

"At last." Bilbil quipped to the round-bodied monarch. "An opportunity for you to slim down for once in your life."

Although it was clearly a shot at the rotund king, he nevertheless giggled at the thought. "Quite so!"

"Doesn't the other pearl protect you from harm?" Bilbil surmised aloud. "Maybe it will prevent the pain of starvation."

Inga shrugged, pulling the protective pearl out and grasping it in one hand. "Worth a try, I guess."

Although his fever eased some, he could still feel a bit of discomfort in his gut as he relaxed against a side wall of the cave. Eventually, his eyes fluttered shut, and he lapsed into a deep sleep.

As Inga's body was too relaxed to react, Rinkitink was able to acquire both of Inga's pearls from his sleeping form without the young prince stirring from his rest. The rotund king then stepped over to Bilbil.

"Isn't that called _stealing,_ you big oaf?" Bilbil hissed.

But Rinkitink mounted the grumpy goat. "Inga needs food. Let's see if we can find some from one of those Coregos buildings."

Bilbil was about to protest, but as Rinkitink now had the pearls that had kept them safe from harm, the goat felt a little more confident. He therefore clopped out of the cave, easily handling the larger man's weight despite Bilbil's own need for food.

The outskirts of the city proved quite literally fruitless in the initial hunt for food. Knowing that the white pearl was amazingly capable of keeping them from being discovered by patrols, they hesitantly agreed to go back into the city and find one of the open-air food stands they had seen when they made their way out of the city with Inga's help.

As Rinkitink had the pearls with him, and the guard shifts were light compared to the day, getting around them was fairly easy as they made their way to one such food stand, which was mostly filled with cooked and sliced pieces of delicious-looking meat. Rinkitink carefully acquired a bit of food for himself(which he quickly consumed), and then fed Bilbil before grabbing some meat pieces for Inga. They were a bit raw, but edible to taste.

As Rinkitink worked, Bilbil caught sight of the slumbering, quivering shopkeeper nearby, who was resting on the ground.

The goat noticed that this merchant's skin was not like those of the soldiers. It was a bright pink, and the hair he had on his slightly balding head was a lavender color. His breath was shaky as he continued to sleep.

A look of concern was on Bilbil's face as he looked down at this shopkeeper.

"I hope you won't get in trouble for this." Bilbil quietly observed.

Rinkitink heard this, and moved to look down at the shopkeeper. "Don't worry, old friend. I thought of this. That's why I only took one piece of meat for you and one for me. These three delicious pieces of meat are for Inga. According to the pearl's wisdom, so many soldiers take meat from these food stands that they'd hardly notice if some of it was missing." The rotund king then noticed the nearby guard about to turn towards the food stand area. "Come on…let's go back to Inga."

Once Bilbil and Rinkitink were outside the borders of the city, evading guards as they went, the large man mounted the goat and they quickly and carefully returned to the cave, avoiding detection with the aid of the white pearl's wisdom.

When they entered the cave mouth, however, they were expecting to find Inga still sleeping, and still alone. They at least confirmed that he was still sleeping comfortably.

But he was not alone.

The short-statured, round-bodied, white-haired and stone gray-skinned man stood over the prince's slumbering form without saying a word, practically staring down upon him thoughtfully, or so it seemed.

Rinkitink and Bilbil also noticed that he had a jewel-encrusted gold crown upon his head, and a cummerbund-like belt with an array of small, glowing gems fastened to it in patterns. His ears were pointed, much like that of an elf, and he wore a one-piece red outfit resembling long underwear.

The bearded old man's head slowly turned to Bilbil and Rinkitink, a neutral expression on his face. The smile that formed on his lips looked a bit ominous.

"Good evening." He spoke, in a gruff voice. "I am Roquat."


	8. VIII: Reasons for Treason

**VIII: Reasons For Treason**

The Lion nodded in thoughtful understanding after hearing Tilda's story. "Sooo…dey gave ya dat ol' 'raw deal', eh?"

"It's just not fair!" Tilda frowned as she crossed her arms, speaking in a clearly evident huff. " _They_ get to learn full spells, and me? All those silly, useless _cantrips!_ "

The Lion had chosen an uninhabited cottage away from the main headquarters within which to interrogate the apprentice. Dorothy and the Scarecrow joined their leonine friend, leaving the others of the Legion to keep an eye on their other, far more potent captives.

"Tilda…" Dorothy stepped close to the apprentice, taking a furry knee as she spoke. "…do you know why they're doing all this? Turning everyone to stone?"

Tilda sighed, her head lowered. "It's all because of Krewl."

"Krewl?" The Lion frowned in confusion. "Who's dat?"

"He was our king after my father, Phearse, disappeared." Tilda explained. "That 'Goog' guy promised Krewl a fortune…and an alliance…if Goog could marry the Princess Gloria. Goog tried courting Gloria. Thirty-eight times. Every time, she turned him down. That's when Krewl and Mistress Blinkie came up with the idea to capture the only boy Gloria was interested in…the gardener's boy, Pon…and exchange his youth for Goog's wrinkled old age."

The Scarecrow's eyes widened. "How horrid!"

"Goog tried one more time before Mistress Blinkie had us freeze Gloria's heart." Tilda added. "That's why she looks the way she does now."

"So…Gloria wasn't always like that?" Dorothy asked.

Tilda shook her head. "She's King Kynd's daughter. Kynd ruled Jinxland before my father succeeded him. Gloria was just as nice as Kynd was, or so everyone else thinks. I thought she was _boring_. I don't know what Pon sees in her, but everyone else seems to think they were made for each other. Blech!"

"Whaddya tink of 'er _now_ , eh?" The Lion angrily mused. "How's it feel ta be partially responsible for all da _mess_ you witches made aroun' here?"

The Scarecrow kept his tone calm as he asked his next question. "What about Krewl, Tilda? What happened to him?"

"Gloria turned him to stone after she petrified everyone else." Tilda replied. "Good riddance, too. All that scheming made our heads hurt. He was a real pain in the butt."

"He really does sound like a horrible man." Dorothy noted, feeling an urge to growl warily deep inside her. She was barely able to suppress it.

A thought then occurred to the Lion, who maintained his contempt and his distrust for the apprentice. "Wait a minute…if ya didn't like dat dose witches was learnin' ya up wit cantrips, why did ya continue ta go along wit all dis?"

"Because I had to. You can't betray a witch. Especially if you're a part of the coven. The punishment for betraying a coven is always death, and that's just what I'm doing right now." Tilda had a grave expression on her face as she spoke these words. "But I…I can't do this anymore. Whether you kill me or they do, it really doesn't matter to me." She then hung her head down shamefully. "I'm dead either way."

Dorothy brought one of her furry paws up to raise the head of the apprentice gently. "We're not going to kill you, Tilda. What you're doing now isn't bad. Well…not to us, anyway. What you're doing is very brave."

"Heh…ya can say dat again, girlie." The Lion mused.

The canine girl kept her tone gentle and reassuring. "What if I told you we could introduce you to a witch who is ten times more powerful than any of those witches in that coven? Even that mean ol' 'Mistress Blinkie'?"

Tilda frowned, knowing who Dorothy had to be referring to. "Daddy told me Glinda was evil. Mistress Blinkie told me why."

"Have you ever actually _met_ Glinda?" The Scarecrow then asked, arching an eyebrow. "Face to face?"

"If I did, I'd fall under her spell." Tilda countered. "Mistress Blinkie told me she has an enchantment on her that makes people like her."

"Oh, that's not true, Tilda." Dorothy replied. "When I first met her, I didn't know _what_ to think of her. I was really nervous, and I didn't feel any differently when she came down to see me. The Wicked Witch of the West even confronted her, and her bad behavior didn't change at all."

The Scarecrow glanced at his leonine friend, who maintained a distrustful expression. Nevertheless, he turned back to the skeptical young apprentice. "Tilda…I wonder if you've ever heard of a group of really brave and resourceful animals calling themselves the Legion of Courage?"

The Lion immediately angled his head towards Ozma's straw-stuffed advisor with a wary expression, immediately curious as to why he was invoking the Legion's name. It seemed like a dumb question to the king of the beasts, who was certain that the Legion had amassed enough of a reputation throughout the Quadling Country that any knowledge of them, no matter where they were in their native region, would be a no-brainer.

Surprisingly, the apprentice shook her head.

"Well, one of their mottos as a team is 'deeds, not words'." The Scarecrow continued. "Do you know what that means?"

"Yeah. They don't stand around and talk. They do things." Tilda answered. "But what does that have to do with Glinda?"

"Think of it this way, Tilda. From what you're telling us, you've been _told_ what kind of person Glinda is, but you've never actually _met_ her." The straw-stuffed advisor then placed one of the gloves that were his hands gently on the apprentice's shoulder. "Do the deed of meeting her, rather than judging her based on the words of other people."

The Lion began to show a hint of a smile at this, always appreciative of his good friend's sly grasp of wisdom.

Tilda thought on this, but there was another avenue of uncertainty to her involvement. "Well…even if I did help you, I…I don't know how I could. I mean…I just know _cantrips._ That kind of magic is useless!"

"How _dare_ you talk like that in front of da leader an' founder of da Legion o' Courage!" The Lion suddenly huffed, stepping right in front of the visibly intimidated apprentice. "Now lissen here, missy…I didn't get dat medal o' mine fa bein' all prissy! I had ta _prove_ myself! Nevah losin' one stitch when facin' a wicked witch! Stingin' like a bee when paw-dukin' a fightin' tree! Pullin' an all-nighter when facin' a giant spider! Kid, I've done all dis, an' DEN some! An' all I had was me two mitts, instinct an' wits, an' not a scrap o' magic ta make it all tragic! _Rrruff!_ "

"The Lion's right!" The Scarecrow proclaimed, in a spirited voice. "Grit your teeth!"

"Show some fight!" Dorothy added.

"An' da stuff dat ya made of!" The Lion raised a balled paw in emphasis. "Show 'em all dere's more ta Tilda den _cantrips!_ "

"Or better yet, show them just how much you _can_ do with those cantrips!" The Scarecrow noted. "Think outside the box, so to speak!"

As much as she wanted to embrace the encouragement she was receiving, Tilda remained hesitant to drink it all in. Her next words summed up her justification.

"They'll all hate me anyway just for being with the coven." Tilda lamented. "Everyone in Jinxland, I mean."

The Lion shook his head. "Dey won't do dat. Know why? 'Cause we're gonna tell dem all jus' how much ya _did_ help us if we can break dat stone spell…" His expression then went wary. "…dat is, if ya _do_ wanna help us."

"You've been very helpful already, you know." The Scarecrow added.

"That's right." Dorothy remarked in agreement. "Thanks to you, we know that Princess Gloria isn't herself. Tilda…I know you said she was 'boring', but…well, if she knew you were one of the people who helped to free her from that spell, don't you think she'd want you to be a friend? Even if she didn't, I'm sure she'd be the first to defend you if anyone came forward thinking you weren't capable of being anything other than a wicked witch."

Tilda's next inquiry, after a long and thoughtful moment, was more wary. She directed it to the Lion. "What are you gonna do with the other apprentices?"

"Well, we gotta keep 'em outta da fight, Til." The Lion replied. "Bound an' gagged, so's dey don't cause no magic problems. We ain't gonna hurt 'em, though. Dat's against da Legion's ways."

"Tilda…" Dorothy placed a paw on the apprentice's shoulder as she spoke. "…can I ask you why you wanted to join the coven? Was it because they're all friends of yours?"

Tilda shook her head. "They never liked me that much. Kept calling me a 'wanna-be'. I guess it was because of my dad. He told me I should always be strong. Look down on the weak. Told me I should follow the family tradition. Follow in the footsteps of those who came before us. He said something about 'pulling strings' to get me into the coven, because he didn't know what else I could get into, being a girl."

"Hmph! Well, if you don't mind my saying so, that was awfully narrow-minded of your father to think you couldn't do anything other than being a witch!" The Scarecrow huffed.

Tilda shrugged. "I loved him anyway. Even if he didn't return that love just because he wanted a boy. I mean…he's my dad, isn't he? Another reason I wanted to be a witch was because I wanted to be able to find out what happened with dad. I mean…all I know is that he disappeared."

"Oh, I think Glinda could tell you what happened to him, Tilda." Dorothy assured. "If you can help us free her, and everyone else, that is."

"There's something else you should consider, Tilda." The Scarecrow remarked. "You said your coven froze Gloria's heart? Well, that would mean she couldn't love anyone anymore, could she? The way she is now, she probably wants to turn _everyone_ in Oz to stone. Even you. That's why it's important to see her freed from that spell. With a heart as cold as Gloria's has become, not even complete loneliness will be enough to satisfy her, but she won't realize that until it's too late."

After another long moment, Tilda finally nodded, beginning to see the wisdom in the Scarecrow's words. "That…does make sense…"

"Would it help you help us better if…maybe we were able to get a spellbook from Blinkie's place?" Dorothy asked, feeling confident that they had Tilda convinced.

Tilda shook her head. "What we learned never came from books. We were taught by the witches themselves. They even warned us that to disturb one of their spellbooks is dangerous."

"Hey! Don'cha get all yella-bellied on us again!" The Lion chided.

"No, no, that's not what I mean." Tilda responded. "I mean that the spells are too advanced. Too complex for an apprentice. Reading about a spell that's beyond what you're capable of casting can kill you."

"Hmmm…" The Scarecrow was suspicious of this wisdom. "…is that what they _told_ you? How do you know this isn't another case of them lying to you, like they did when they told you about Glinda?"

"Because Tasia tried conjuring a blizzard once by reading right from one of Mistress Blinkie's texts." The apprentice explained. "It was a long recitation, too. She only recited two words, though, before she began to freeze up right in front of me. Literally. Cold as an icicle. She could barely move. Blaise had to thaw her out with her fire magic."

The Scarecrow nodded in understanding. "And I fancy that if you tried reading something which could counter the effects of transmuting stone to flesh, you'd probably start turning to stone if the magic were too advanced for you?"

Tilda shrugged. "I'm not sure about that. I don't even know how advanced that kind of spell would be."

The trio nodded, going quiet again to think of another line of inquiry.

"But…" Tilda's voice interrupted them. "…if you tried getting one or more of those spellbooks, I'd be willing to give it a try."

The Lion quirked an eyebrow. "Despite da risk?"

Tilda nodded. "In the meantime, I can fortify the bonds on the apprentices. 'Bind', after all, is among the cantrips I've learned. I'll do that right now."

"I'll go with you." The Scarecrow followed Tilda as she began her journey back to the cottage HQ.

The straw-stuffed advisor stopped at the cottage doorway, however, to silently indicate that he would keep an eye on the apprentice, pointing to his eyes, and then to Tilda. The Lion nodded in acknowledgement, and the Scarecrow hurried to keep pace with the apprentice.

Dorothy turned her furry head to the Lion. "You don't think she'll betray us, do you?"

The Lion shrugged. "She coulda used dose cantrips o' hers on us while we was talkin' to her. Da fact dat she didn't is a good sign."

"Still…she could be waiting for the right moment." Dorothy cautiously noted.

"Which is why ol' straw-head's watchin' 'er. He may be all brainy, but he's always had good instincts." The leonine monarch then turned to face Dorothy, placing both hands on her shoulders. "I…don't suppose ya wanna go play fetch wit dose spellbooks Til wants? I'll have da Legion back ya up dis time."

An eager smile played on the canine girl's mouth upon hearing the request. "When do I leave?"

* * *

"Roquat?" King Rinkitink couldn't resist the chance. "Any relation to…Kumquat?" He began to giggle. "I hear he's quite fruity!" He laughed a little louder.

As much as Bilbil really wanted to give the round-bodied King a sharp headbutt to sober him up, all the goat could do was hope that this white-haired, gray-skinned man did not take too much offense.

Roquat, however, seemed to be ignoring Rinkitink's mirth completely.

It was when the equally rotund, but shorter, Roquat turned his eyes back to the sleeping Prince Inga that Rinkitink's laughter began to end. The little man's expression remained neutral as his attention shifted to the boy.

"Such a precious-looking boy." He then raised a hand. It began to twinkle as he passed it over Inga's sleeping form. "If only you had been born a nome."

To the startled eyes of both Rinkitink and Bilbil, Inga's skin shifted…in texture and color…to resemble Roquat's rock-like gray skin tone, and the boy's head of hair went silvery white as its shape wisped upward, now looking like a white burst of flame in appearance. His ears became pointed, the outer ends of Inga's whitening eyebrows curling inward, and the tip of Inga's nose bloated slightly, becoming as round as a small bulb. The changes did not seem to disturb the sleeping prince, however, as his figure became a little more pear-shaped with the fattening of his tummy. There were no further alterations beyond this.

Bilbil was the first to voice his shock. "What…what have you _done?_ " the goat incredulously hissed.

The gray-skinned man glared to Bilbil as he growled. "It is in my power to do so! I am the king of the nomes! I could turn your bloated human companion into an equally large _swine_ if I wanted to!"

Clearly, Rinkitink found no humor in what had happened, either. "Do you _know_ this boy? Do you know who he is? Has he _wronged_ you in some way?"

"And what's so wrong with this boy being a nome, like me?" Roquat huffed. "It was a perfectly painless change! As you can see, he still sleeps soundly!" His eyes returned to the gray-skinned prince. "Perhaps now, he is dreaming of a cool breeze against a sparkling granite surface, or rolling along an incline as a loose pebble just to excite his senses. Maybe he has become one with seismic rock, feeling the roasting warmth of seething lava to comfort him, or coasting his consciousness through acres of ridged limestone. Such are the thoughts of the average rock fairy, it seems."

"But Inga is no rock fairy!" Rinkitink protested.

"Well, he is now!" Roquat growled. "For as long as I wish it!"

Bilbil wondered if Rinkitink's mirth was the reason for Roquat's sorcerous indulgence, and he assumed a more cautious and as respectful a tone as the goat could manage as he spoke. "Uh…your majesty, I…I wonder if I could, um, beg your pardon for King Rinkitink's rashness upon hearing your name. I'm afraid he is, well, a bit excessive in his mirth. That's his nature, though. He didn't mean to offend."

"Ho ho! How queer it is to hear such kingly respect from a goat!" the nome monarch mused. His next words to Bilbil were spoken with an arched eyebrow. "One would think you were a prince yourself!"

Bilbil suddenly fixed a very fierce-looking glare upon Roquat. " _Don't._ "

A mysterious smile now played on the nome's lips as he once again turned and knelt down to look upon the sleeping prince. "Such interesting companions you have, little Ingot. Hmm! Yes! I like that name. It suits you. Whenever you are among the nomes, my boy, you shall be called Ingot."

"Please, your majesty…" Rinkitink now had a more pleading tone. "…his father will be heartbroken!"

Once again, Roquat frowned as he rose back to his feet, turning to Rinkitink and the goat. "Must you continue to moan and blubber over my curiosities? You may have need of the gifts Ingot now possesses!" The nome then stepped over to one of the stone statues, this one of the monster with the missing eye. "Perhaps he can tell you what happened to this nasty abomination's missing eye, eh?"

"Do you know anything about her?" Bilbil asked, assuaging an evident curiosity.

"This…serpentine horror…would not be the harmless stone semblance of what it used to be were it not for my intervention." Roquat replied. "I was called upon by the leaders of two warrior societies to end its reign of terror in exchange for a kingly sum. Indeed, were it not for my very nature as the Nome King, it would probably be _my_ stone semblance standing here…and for a brief moment, there _was_ a stone semblance of me, for I had not known of _how_ this fiend amassed so many statues where fearless warriors once moved."

"Warrior societies?" Bilbil remarked. "You mean…Regos and Coregos?"

"Yes, and yes." Roquat answered. "Seems they wanted a very unique mineral deposit from this cave, and they were losing far too many of their warriors to its only inhabitant. Stheno knew only rage, too. Twisted, mindless, vengeful…I pitied this creature for the outrageous manner of divine curse that had been visited not only upon her, but her sisters as well. Even if she were freed from her scaly curse, I doubted she would fully recover. Besides…I was in a bit of a huff from having been momentarily petrified by her gaze. So, I cast the very same effect back upon Stheno herself when I regained my mobility."

Rinkitink looked surprised. " _You_ did that to her?"

"And…what manner of 'kingly sum' did you ask for in return?" Bilbil warily asked.

The Nome King shrugged in response. "No less than sixty or seventy. They have yet to fulfill their debt, too. My steward, Kaliko, is seeing to that."

"Your highness…" Bilbil spoke these next words cautiously. "…might we appeal on Inga's behalf? Is there anything we could do to convince you to restore the prince's humanity?"

Roquat's devious smile seemed to indicate that he was waiting for an appeal like this. He then stepped back over to the gray statue Stheno had become. He then pointed up to the cylindrical impression where the gorgon's eye should be. "This monster's transmuted eye has been plucked. Although the stone that was once her eye belongs to Stheno, it is being misidentified as belonging to Medusa, one of her two sisters. Bring this Medusa Stone to me, and you have my word…as the king of the nomes…that I shall restore the boy."

"But…how are we to find it?" Rinkitink asked.

"Is young Ingot not a nome? Just because I have changed him doesn't mean he has forgotten anyone and everyone he knows!" Roquat huffed. "As a rock fairy, he has a sense for rock deposits. Particularly enchanted ones. He should be able to guide you to wherever the Medusa Stone is located."

"And why do _you_ want it?" Bilbil asked. "Assuming that even as a rock, this eye can still turn people to stone. How do we know you won't petrify _us_ , should we find it?"

The Nome King's head slowly turned back to the goat with an expression indicating that he might have reached the end of his patience in tolerating Bilbil's words. He slowly walked over to him, his fierce gaze locked on the goat's. Unfazed, Bilbil stood his ground, perhaps getting ready to charge the nome.

When Roquat was inches from the goat's head, he growled his answer.

"Because I am the Nome King." Roquat replied. "Not a monster."

The nome maintained his intimidating expression as the stones on the wide belt he had around his waist began to glow.

In the next moment, and in the blink of an eye, Roquat was gone.

When the gray-skinned monarch was gone, the eyes of both Rinkitink and Bilbil went back over to Inga.

After a long moment of considerable disbelief, Bilbil finally spoke his mind. "As if things couldn't get any _worse!_ "

Rinkitink, however, pulled the white pearl from the pocket of his outfit, gripping it as he stepped towards the statue of Stheno. He stood before the fearsome image for a moment, and then placed a chubby hand upon its cold, gray surface. The hand then went to the head, the palm pressed against the eyesocket where the eye had been.

Bilbil's gaze followed the round-bodied monarch as he attempted this line of investigation. After a long moment, the goat was eager to hear something… _anything_ …that might help their situation from Rinkitink. "Well?"

It was weird for Bilbil to see Rinkitink looking as serious as he now was. In their long association with each other, the king of his eponymous province always had a perpetually jolly personality. To see him abandon it in favor of a more sober mask was admittedly refreshing.

Rinkitink turned to his four-legged friend with his findings. "It… _was_ stolen. Magically, in fact. The hand of a…a great evil."

After these words came silence. Bilbil's eyes widened. "That's _it?_ "

Rinkitink shrugged, mystified by the goat's visible frustration. "It's a pearl of _wisdom,_ Bilbil! All I could pick up from it is the _why!_ It can't trace the path the stone took after it was plucked!"

A weary young voice, which would have been more familiar had it not been at a higher pitch than it should be, suddenly interjected from behind them both. "What stone?"

The eyes of both the King and Bilbil widened as they froze. They then turned, slowly, to see Prince Inga rise to his feet with a bit of effort given his altered figure.

Inga's curled brows furrowed in confusion, seeing their somewhat fearful gazes. "What?"

Another silent moment passed. They didn't quite know what to say or ask first.

Inga rolled his eyes, still looking mystified. " _Whaaaat?_ Why are you both looking at me like that?"

Rinkitink finally spoke. He was quite logically slow and cautious with his words, smiling cordially as he uttered them. "Er…forgive me, my dear prince, for asking what could be a ridiculously obvious question…but, uh…do you know who you are?"

After a moment, the young nome shrugged, seemingly unfazed by this request. "Inga."

Bilbil's inquiry was a little more blunt. "Do you know _what_ you are?"

Inga then looked to his hands, and then down upon his altered figure, and then brought his hands to his face, feeling at his face and his hair. Rinkitink and Bilbil fully expected a more radical reaction from the boy upon realizing he had been transformed.

The response they got instead stunned the both of them, once again, into silent disbelief.

"Just what I've _always_ been." Inga replied, as if it were plainly obvious. "I'm a nome."

* * *

The standoff at sea had finally ended, but not in a way the crew of the _Betsy Bobbin_ would have wanted.

The crews of the ships below had begun to think outside the box. Their strongest men were called upon not only to heft the broadsides cannons of their ships to the upper deck, but also to aim these strong, far-shooting cannons _upwards,_ hoping that one of their cannon shots would strike the skybound vessel.

The first attempted shot streamed close enough to alert the _Betsy Bobbin_ 's crew, and Fyter shouted for Scraps to pedal as fast as the patchwork girl could. Realizing she was in as much danger as everyone else aboard the ship, she was all too willing to oblige.

The second shot, however, was a clean hit. The cannon shot cut right through the tub portion of the ship and then crashed through the deck. Although a couple of Pingaree citizens nearly sailed out the hole below, they were grabbed by other citizens and pulled back into the ship.

"Go, go, _goooo!_ " Fyter yelled out as the vessel surged forward, shots occasionally streaming wild to either side of the _Betsy Bobbin._

"Hey! You don't have to tell me twice!" Scraps called out, her legs maintaining very fast revolutions below. "Pedalingpedalingpedalingpedalingpedalingpedalingpedaling…"

Upon the seas below, one half of the crew were committed to helping stabilize the cannons as they continued to fire up. The other half committed themselves to moving the ship forward as high winds began to pick up all around them.

One of these men, committed to this part of the tasks, appeared jubilant as the ship began to pick up speed in the pursuit. "HAH! It's as if the skies _themselves_ want us to bring them down!"

But the winds started to whip around in a manner that slowed the movement of the ships continuing their pursuit, and the ocean waves around them began to rock the ships around significantly.

Their sailing conditions worsened considerably within moments. Whereas the ships were stable and moving forward one minute, they now began bucking like wild broncos. The skies above darkened, and rumbles of thunder could be heard. Large wave surges struck the ships, dislodging many sailors and sending them into the seas. Inevitably, the cannons that were brought up on the decks were lost.

The pursuing ships themselves were claimed in the maelstrom moments later, with only the glowing, vengeful eyes of half-submerged women to witness their demise.

The horrible conditions compelled Buzzub's approaching ships…the ones sent by Queen Cor…to reverse course quickly, lest they be caught up in the deadly torrents on the horizon.

High above, the _Betsy Bobbin_ began its wildest ride as it attempted to negotiate the high winds that caused the dirigible to tilt from side to side. Hank had a particularly hard time trying to stay on all four hooves, stumbling about as the flying ship continued moving forward. Fyter worked the rudders, steering the ship as best he could to avoid airborne calamities.

Fyter angled his head over to Scraps. "You've gotta try to slow us down a little!"

"Pedalingpedalingpedalingpedaling…huh? Oh!" The patchwork girl slowed the rapid pedaling to the point where she could change its direction, and picked up speed from there. "Backpedalbackpedalbackpedalbackpedalbackpedalbackpedalbackpedal…"

Kitticut struggled, during the chaotic progress of the dirigible, to get within earshot of the tin soldier. "We should try to set down on the ground below us!" He yelled out. "Wait for these conditions to ease up!"

Although Fyter saw that they were near a mountain range in their forward progress…which was now slowing up a bit from the backpedaling…he nodded in acknowledgement, and eased up on the furnaces so that the dirigible could descend. Fyter also commanded for Scraps to stop her pedaling.

As the _Betsy Bobbin_ came near to the ground below, they saw that where they were to land was not any kind of smooth, landable surface. The terrain they were about to impact was a little more rough, and rock-solid. Fyter at least hoped that their landing wouldn't be too violent. He tried igniting the furnaces in bursts in an attempt to slow their descent.

The underbelly crashed through a few trees on the way down, but the dirigible finally made landfall. It was in no way a perfect landing, however. In fact, the impact made it sound like the vessel had crashed. The damaged dirigible's passengers held on for dear life as the _Betsy Bobbin_ shuddered with its landfall, and finally came to a halt.

Weather conditions significantly improved moments later, giving Fyter the suspicion that the climate had been altered magically.

Fyter and Scraps confirmed that Hank was still among them, as several Pingaree citizens had held to him during the wild ride. Kitticut and Garee were fine, as well. In fact, everyone aboard the _Betsy Bobbin_ managed to make it through the ordeal with only a few bruises and cuts…none of them very serious…to serve as lasting mementos of their experiences.

Although the dirigible itself was badly damaged from the landing, Fyter surmised that it could, conceivably, be fixed to the point where it could fly once more. As the dirigible was created by Johnny Dooit, no one aboard the ship was in any knowledgeable position to repair the vessel. Both the crew and the passengers of the _Betsy Bobbin_ were effectively grounded.

Disembarking the damaged dirigible, Fyter began to look around. "Now we just have to find out _where_ we are."

"Good question." Hank similarly looked around, although he was at more of a disadvantage, as the land of Oz was still mostly unfamiliar to him. "I don't see anythin' familiar."

"Wait." All eyes turned to Queen Garee, who pointed in a particular direction. "What's that?"

Their eyes looked to the direction the Queen indicated…

…and they saw a _very_ large construct resembling a man holding an equally large mallet above his head. Its form, made primarily of cast iron plates, was stationary, but at the same time looked very intimidating for its tremendous size. One of the Pingaree citizens noticed a path which seemed to be leading in the direction of wherever this giant was located.

Upon being alerted of the path, Fyter turned to Hank. "You're First Mate, Hank. It's your call. Do we follow this path?"

"Not like we have anythin' bett'r t' do." Hank replied.

The entire group followed behind Hank, Fyter, and Scraps…but after they had taken a few steps, a voice behind them all stopped them in their tracks.

"HEY!" The voice cried out in alarm. "Don't go down that way! You'll all be _crushed_ in one big splat!"

Pingaree civilians in the rear of the group were the first to spot him as Fyter, Hank, and Scraps made their way through the small crowd towards the small, gray-skinned humanoid who had shouted his warning.

The small man had a round gut, a bulbous nose, and a head of wild white hair styled in a manner resembling billowing smoke. The outer edges of his white eyebrows curled inward, as did the ends of his feet. His hands went to his hips as Fyter stepped in front of the little man.

"Are you referring to that large metal man this path apparently leads to?" Fyter asked.

The gray-skinned man nodded. "I can show you a way around it."

"A shortcut?" Hank guessed.

"Heh…more like a _slide_ -cut!" The little man responded. "We'll slide right down to a small cavern, then we walk for a little bit until we reach a tunnel, which goes straight across, and then we go up a long set of steps to the other side of the mountain."

"I don't think I'd be able t' slide too good." Hank warily noted. "Maybe I should stay with th' ship."

"I'll stay with Hank if he does." Scraps added, thinking of Betsy. "Sliding is _boring._ "

Fyter thought on this. "Hmmm…" He then turned to the little gray man. "…may I first ask who you are?"

"I'm Klik." The little man replied.

Fyter nodded. "Is there a way to, uh, turn the statue off, so to speak? Perhaps temporarily?"

Klik considered this, taking a moment to think on such a possibility. "It is not impossible, but I believe you would need to ask the Nome King himself. If you follow me down the slide, we can see about granting you an audience with him, if these two won't mind waiting."

"Only if you think this King would be willing to do us this favor." Fyter responded. "King Kitticut, Queen Garee, and I will join you for this audience, while everyone else will wait here with…"

"Oh, no no no! That won't do at all!" Klik interjected. "The Nome King prefers to confront a large audience! It always makes him feel more important to be what he is, and it should improve your chances of getting what you want from him. Bring your King, your Queen, and all these others with us! The girl and the mule can wait here, just as they said they would."

Kitticut whispered a quick message to Fyter, who nodded in acknowledgement. The tin soldier then turned back to Klik, while Kitticut stepped over to Hank. "Very well. Lead us to this slide of yours." Fyter affirmed.

Kitticut's discreet message to Hank was brief, but wise. "Keep out of sight while we are gone."

Hank quietly nodded in acknowledgement as the group began following Klik.

The gray-skinned nome led the crowd to a mountainside, and Fyter momentarily wondered if this odd humanoid had led them to a dead end. Perhaps to spring a trap, even. One of the tin soldier's hands went to his sword, looking around him warily as Klik simply walked up to the side of the hard rock of the mountain's base and placed a hand against it.

He then turned to the others. "Just race on through now! We slide from here!"

Kitticut, Garee, and the others looked very hesitant upon receiving this invitation. Fyter, on the other hand, hurried over. If this was a trick and he'd slam against the rock, he would at least be unharmed despite the impact.

But Fyter went right through the rock! Apparently breaching a very well-crafted illusionary surface, the tin soldier rolled for a bit before stabilizing his positioning in the slide downward.

Once the others saw this, they too hurried forward, some of them eager to slide down.

When they were all past the illusionary surface, Klik passed through it. With the rock fairy's hand no longer contacting the rock, the surface solidified once more.

Many voices…exultant, scared, and otherwise…could be heard along the slope as Fyter, Kitticut, Garee, and the other Pingaree citizens continued their rapid descent. The incline wasn't too steep despite a few minor dips, and was angled in a manner that they could maintain contact with it…rather than bounce around in a harsh, dangerous, and uncontrollable manner…as they zipped down the smooth, wide granite path.

They all rolled and slid to a stop within a wide, circular impression which resembled a large pond. Around the outer edges of this impression was a large, cavernous expanse. On the opposite side of the smooth granite incline, a single path was the only passage out of this area, but a pair of small humanoids…these two wearing suits of intimidating-looking armor, and armed with large, bladed weapons…guarded the archway.

Once Klik joined the group within the pond-like impression, the two guards snapped to attention. The gray-skinned nome then gestured for Fyter to join him as he stepped towards the guards.

The others began to rise, but Klik raised his hand as he sharply addressed the Pingaree residents. "Just the tin man. For now."

Fyter now glared at the nome. "This is contrary to what you had told me. Did you not say that your Nome King preferred to address a crowd?"

Klik just shrugged. "He wants to hear your situation first. Then, he will have you return here to await his answer. Then, he will come to you and your friends to announce it."

Although it still sounded a bit fishy to him, Fyter nodded in acknowledgement, keeping one hand on the scabbard of his sword as he followed Klik to where the guards stood.

They called out in unison as Klik and his tin-plated guest stopped in front of them. "Hail, Chamberlain Klik!"

The Chamberlain gasped, startled, by this sudden reaction. He seemed irritated by this as he nodded and waved his hand in acknowledgement. "Yes, yes…as you were." He huffed irritably.

Walking along a long pathway, Klik angled his head a bit to Fyter. "I hate when they do that."

While the path was wide enough to be less than precarious, there were no barriers of any kind to keep one from falling off its edges, and the seemingly endless chasm beyond the edges clearly indicated that it would be a long and ultimately fatal way down. Their path made a sharp right turn before coming into a large, open area, where a high throne made of jewel-encrusted granite could be seen at the opposite end.

The throne seat itself was occupied, as well, by the one ordained by his own authority to sit upon it: Roquat, the Nome King. Standing beside him was another of the nomes, this one wearing a set of fine clothes, but bearing no facial hair. His head of white hair was styled in the manner of a wisp of smoke rising from the ground. This nome was in discreet conversation with Roquat when Klik and Fyter began their approach to the throne.

Roquat turned his attention to the Chamberlain with a pleasant expression, waving off his more wary-looking nome associate, who began making his way down the stone staircase leading to the throne seat.

"Greetings, Chamberlain." Roquat began, in a pleasant tone. "What manner of tin-plated guest have you brought me? Is this, perhaps, a creation of yours?"

"He is not, my king." Klik responded. "He is with a group that I have brought with me, and will speak for them."

"Group?" Roquat's brow furrowed. He then looked curiously to the tin soldier.

Fyter stepped forward, offering a cordial bow before speaking. "Greetings, your highness. I am Fyter, Captain of the Gillikin Country's Purple Heart Patrol. I represent the passengers and crew of the _Betsy Bobbin_ , a vessel which crash-landed near your mountain range. I wish to appeal for the temporary deactivation of the large iron guardian."

Roquat's eyes widened upon hearing this request. "Why?"

"Two others of my crew…a mule, and a patchwork girl…need to pass through unharmed." Fyter replied. "The mule is not very fast, and I do not wish to see him, nor the girl crushed. Once they have joined us, our intention is merely to pass through to the other side of this mountain, and find a temporary place to stay at whatever settlements lie beyond."

"Settlements? Ho ho! All that you will find beyond these peaks are far more treacherous ones, within which creatures of great evil lie in wait!" Roquat mused aloud. "Where have you come from?"

"An island region called Pingaree, your highness." Fyter responded. "The region was under brutal siege, yet we have managed to rescue those they sought to capture. I am speaking on their behalf."

One of Roquat's curled white brows arched upward upon hearing the name of Pingaree. "And…around how many do you have with you?"

"A little over twenty-five or so, your majesty." Fyter answered.

The finely-dressed nome that had been speaking in confidence with Roquat, who was now standing near Fyter, spoke next. "Your highness…if I may, I would think that since Pingaree is in close vicinity to the twin islands of Regos and Coregos, these are the ones who attacked Pingaree."

Roquat nodded. "A most logical assumption, Kaliko." His eyes then went back to Fyter. "I remind you again, Captain, that to 'pass through' to the other side of these mountains would be folly. I feel it would be best if you and your group remained with us."

Fyter began to feel a little uneasy about this particular proposition. "Your highness…while your offer is most gracious, the people of Pingaree are a bit more eager to return to their natural homes. Might there be any way to convince you and your people to aid us in fighting back these raiders from Regos and Coregos?"

Roquat's eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward, keeping his eyes on the tin soldier. "Are you suggesting that we go to _war?_ "

"Any assistance, military, magical, or otherwise, would be greatly appreciated." Fyter replied. "If I may be so bold, have you any kind of an army?"

At this, Roquat laughed loudly, nearly falling out of his throne. "We have the strongest and the most numerous of all the armies in the realm! To stand against our might would be most futile!"

Fyter's eyes widened, hopefully, at this. "Might you be able to…"

"No." the nome monarch interjected, his tone sharp and resolute.

Fyter now looked a bit crestfallen. "May I ask why?"

Roquat leaned forward once again, this time with one gray-skinned hand resting against his jewel-encrusted belt. A somewhat malevolent smile was now on his lips as he spoke. "Because I wish for you to occupy a space in my room full of ornaments as a finely-crafted, stained-glass purple heart."

The jewels on Roquat's belt emanated a bright glow for a moment, and a very confused-looking Fyter suddenly disappeared!

Kaliko stepped over to where Fyter had stood. "Regos and Coregos must have been trying to fulfill their debt to you, my king, for the service you had rendered."

Roquat nodded. "A mere twenty-eight. Hardly the full forty or fifty I had asked for, Steward. Unless they have another twenty or so to make up the difference of the kingly sum I had quoted!"

Kaliko nodded. "Are these people to join Captain Fyter and the royal family of Ev in your ornaments room, my king?"

Roquat shook his head. "Not for the moment. See to it that they are fed, Kaliko. Say nothing as to why they are being kept here."

"It is inevitable, your highness, that they will raise insistent questions." Klik noted. "Perhaps even take action."

"Then I suppose I shall have to create a brand new room full of ornaments, yes?" Roquat mused. "I could call it…the Pingaree wing."

Roquat once again laughed quite merrily at his own mirth. Kaliko and Klik merely smiled in response to this.

* * *

"To hold back a great warrior of your talents is such a shame." Blinkie slowly paced around her quiet subject as she spoke. "They taught you so much, and yet, they practically have you on a leash, don't they? We have far more need of your skills than they do, dear, and we can be far more respecting of your talents. Give you a great many more opportunities to exploit them. You have no need of restraint. Just let go. Unleash all that greatness that lies within you. It's a hereditary gift, after all, and like a young flower, it should be allowed to blossom in all its ferocity. Now, I know you'll naturally perform in this manner for us anyway, but I merely want to point out the logic that went into our decision to have you serve us. Although we have more than enough assets to overcome this so-called 'Legion'…even without those pitiful apprentices of ours…in a matter of days, we're certainly willing to seize whatever advantages we can amass along the way. You can understand all this, can't you, dear?"

Her subject merely stared forward with a cold and chilling expression on her face. She looked as if she could pounce forward, filled with rage, at any moment.

Although she was indeed hearing every word the one-eyed witch was saying, there was no visible acknowledgement. Blinkie knew, though, that the conditioning enchantment they had put their new servant through…which would have been permanent had the ritual been performed with the aid of their missing apprentices…required a bit of recovery on the part of the subject, so it was possible that this subject needed a little more time.

Blinkie smirked. "I'll take your cold, hard stare as a yes." She then raised up the collar she held in her hand thoughtfully, which looked identical to the one that had been wrapped around Dorothy's neck. "I still prefer my dog, but…I'm sure you'll be a good little kitty for us anyway, won't you, Rouse?"

* * *

"Empress Nimmie!" The red-robed handmaiden bowed her head respectfully. "This is an unexpected surprise, your highness."

The tin-plated empress smiled. "I understand that Mr. Diggs is still here?"

The handmaiden nodded. "Please follow me."

Before the doors to Glinda's Palace were shut, a single yellow bird fluttered in, perching itself, much to the surprise of both the handmaiden and the empress, on Nimmie's shoulder. The bird idly chirped as its head jerked around curiously.

Nimmie frowned in confusion as she turned to the handmaiden. "Do canaries often take an interest in the palace's visitors, I wonder?"

The handmaiden shrugged, smiling. "Human and beast alike are welcome here in any case, your majesty."

Nimmie turned her tin head to look curiously upon the idle canary. "Awfully quiet, aren't you?" She then turned her attention back to the handmaiden. "Ah, well...let's proceed, handmaiden."

With a cordial nod, they resumed their progress, the canary continuing to dart its head around quietly, remaining on Nimmie's shoulder. When they reached the beautiful-looking pair of gold-lined double doors, the handmaiden knocked gently upon it.

Oscar's voice could be heard within, and it sounded unusually grouchy. "GAH! Did I stutter? I said 'no visitors, no interruptions, no exceptions'!"

"The Empress of the Winkie Country is here to see you, great Wizard." The handmaiden called back. "She has been ordained the interim ruler of Oz. I'm afraid you may need to make an exception despite your instructions."

A moment of silence followed. When Oscar's voice was heard once again, the tone seemed to restore the Wizard's natural benevolence. "Oh! I do apologize. Of course, let her in! Let her in!"

As the door opened, the phanfasm that had taken the real Oscar's place could not help but feel nervous for what would now be the ultimate test of his alternate guise. Upon an occasion as desperate and as nerve-wracking as this, he wished he himself had possessed the gift of being able to read the minds of others, as his First and Foremost was easily capable of doing.

The canary fluttered to an alternate perch, by a bookcase, within the room as Nimmie stepped inside. "I apologize for the interruption, but…well, as interim ruler of the land, I should like to find out how you are doing, Mr. Diggs. Can you tell me anything about what is happening with Betsy?"

"Attending to her diplomatic endeavors with surprising ease, I'd say." Oscar responded, with an air of pride. "Although I always need to be on the alert in case my more…sorcerous skills are needed."

Nimmie turned her gaze to the large and idle crystal ball that was once a fixture within the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West. "And yet, there is no image here. Are you taking a break?"

The Wizard shrugged. "For all the magical aid I've had to provide her with, I would think that I could use a moment to recover, don't you think? I mean…magic does tend to take a lot out of you."

"Stronger magic would do that, certainly." Nimmie's eyes settled back on Oscar. "I wonder what manner of magic would be required to aid in Betsy's mission? I know that seems particularly inquisitive of me, but…well, I'm curious."

"Ah, but a number of minor enchantments are about the equal, in personal taxation, of a strong one, my dear empress." Oscar remarked. "Besides…I'm sure even you could see the wisdom in allowing Betsy, for all her own natural talents, to attend to the challenges of her mission without receiving constant assistance from afar!"

"Oscar…let's try to remember that Betsy Bobbin has recently been ordained a full citizen of the Winkie Country, which means she is one of _my_ people now." Nimmie warily noted, her voice noticeably stern. "I have just as much concern for Betsy, as such, as my husband would. Perhaps even moreso. I must ask that you not be so dismissive of my concerns for her."

"Hence my desire that I not be disturbed, good empress. No visitors, no interruptions, no exceptions. My exact instructions to the handmaidens." Oscar reminded. "That was not for my sake, but for Betsy's. Indeed, I should remind _you,_ if I may be so bold, that my concerns for Betsy Bobbin are as considerable as yours. I did, after all, bring her into the Bailum & Barney Circus, where she once acknowledged me as the closest thing to a father that she has left."

Nimmie's eyes widened upon hearing this last statement. "She said that?"

"Oh yes, good empress." The Wizard replied. "Much as I wish the circumstances were different. As she is an orphan, however, it's understandable that she could make such a statement, don't you think?"

Nimmie looked down thoughtfully, and then nodded. She then rose back up. "I…should leave you to your work then. Again, please forgive the intrusion, Oscar."

Oscar nodded. "Don't forget to take that bird with you."

"Well…I suppose that's up to the bird, but…I will tr…"

The canary quickly fluttered back to Nimmie's shoulder. The tin empress smiled sheepishly to the Wizard. "Never mind. Good day, Mr. Diggs. I'll remind the handmaidens that you're not to be disturbed."

"Much appreciated, my good empress." A slight smile was on Oscar's face as he spoke.

Once Nimmie was gone, he heaved out a great sigh of relief. He thought for sure that his masquerade would come to an end, and was grateful to have been instructed, in advance, in the necessary details by the First and Foremost himself using the crystal ball.

The canary fluttered away once Nimmie was back outside, and a cab brought the tin-plated interim ruler back to the Emerald City.

It was by way of the balcony of Ozma's boudoir that Nimmie would see the canary once again. Only instead of perching upon the edge of the balcony, the yellow bird settled upon the floor below.

"I realize this is asking a lot of you," Nimmie remarked, looking down upon the beautiful-looking little bird. "but...I really do appreciate your doing this."

As Nimmie spoke, the bird began to grow in size, streams of rainbow-colored fairy magic circling all around her as the canary's legs fattened and the clawed feet assuming a much more human shape. Within moments, Nimmie's visitor looked less like a canary and more like a very beautiful and lithe human woman, who spun with balletic grace as the fairy magic abated around her.

The young woman shrugged, smiling. "I have to do something with the time I have on my hands. I can't return to my father until after we've had a rainstorm."

"And Ozma does a better job of controlling the climate of the land than I can." Nimmie mused. "So…can you tell me anything, Polychrome?"

The fairy's expression went dead serious as she nodded. "That man is _not_ Oscar Diggs."

* * *

Buzzub's fear of the starchild of their legends paled in comparison to the prospect of reporting any kind of failure…or delay…to someone like Queen Cor.

Nevertheless, he had to do it. Potentially accept whatever punishment would be inflicted upon him. Even if he had to die on the spot.

He went, alone, to the throne room, realizing that if he had men at his flanks, _they_ would probably die just to send a message to Buzzub. Far too many of his men died aboard the ships that were claimed in the ocean maelstrom as it was.

As always, King Gos and Queen Cor were next to each other, sitting in their respective throne seats. Kneeling beside Queen Cor, perpetually quivering in her pink-skinned state, was the girl that had attempted to deceive everyone into thinking she was the fearsome starchild herself. The thrall that was once called Betsy.

She now wore the sleeveless, peach-colored leotard that was common to the thralls, over which a brown tunic was overlaid. Upon the chest area of this tunic was a bright yellow sigil marking this thrall as the property of Queen Cor. The Queen herself was looking down upon her new thrall when Buzzub entered, and upon seeing the Captain, she gestured for him to approach. Gos also curiously redirected his attention to the sea-drenched warrior as well.

"You _look_ like you have failed." Cor calmly remarked.

"My ships are still intact, my Queen." Buzzub responded. "It was the ones that were already out there that were destroyed."

" _Destroyed?_ " King Gos rose to his feet angrily. "Those were _my ships!_ What manner of storm could rend my fortified warboats?"

"Some of the sailors believe that the storm came too quickly to be a natural one." Buzzub explained. "In fact, a couple of them were blubbering that there were women in the water. Half-submerged, just…staring…upon the dying boats."

Gos frowned incredulously at this. He then turned his head to his wife. "Mermaids?"

Cor lowered her head and let out a heavy sigh, her eyes closed. When they opened back up, they were on her thrall. She slapped her thigh twice, getting the lavender-haired thrall's attention as per her training.

"Drink." Cor sharply commanded.

"Yes! Yesyesyesyes…" the thrall kept her head down as she rose up and hurried out a side door to prepare what was requested of her.

Cor then turned her head to Gos. "We may need to deal with this mermaid kingdom, husband. If they were responsible for the destruction of your ships, it would clearly be an act of war."

This visibly perplexed Gos. "How are we to go into battle with a foe that can breathe water, and are perpetually submerged? They rarely venture forth from the safety of their kingdoms! Our men would need to breathe water indefinitely to be able to attempt an offensive!"

Buzzub offered an idea he knew would be familiar to the Queen. "Maybe…we can call upon the one who petrified that scaly monster. The one who…"

"NO!" Gos shot a finger out towards the sea captain. Cor also looked visibly against this suggestion. "We are already in arrears over that first favor! We shall _not_ add another!"

Buzzub lowered his head and went silent as the thrall returned with a tray, upon which was a single glass and a clay pitcher. She went right over to the Queen, filling the glass with a strong beverage, and then presenting the full glass to Cor with steady hands, her head bowed, and on one knee.

Cor, however, did not take the offered glass immediately, as she was listening to a suggestion Gos had offered. "Perhaps…we can lure one somehow. Or begin a campaign against the creatures of the ocean. _Something_ to let them know we will _not_ tolerate their intrusions on our affairs!"

"Or at least find out, somehow, about their apparent ties with the people of Pingaree." Cor offered. "An initiative like that would be considerably less risky."

"BAH! That's TIME-consuming! You are far too _cerebral,_ wife of mine!" Gos growled. "This time, we must have _action!_ As you yourself have said, this is an act of _war!_ "

"My king, please…if I may…" Buzzub sounded a bit fearful as he spoke. "…the mermaids are said to use powerful mag…"

Upon hearing the word 'mermaids', Gos quickly advanced to within striking distance of the sea captain and furiously struck him hard across the face with the back of his calloused hand, sending Buzzub to the floor.

"I AM YOUR KING!" Gos hollered in his angry rage. "IF I SAY WE GO TO WAR, WE WILL BLARE THE TRUMPETS OF DEATH, AND ROAR LIKE LIONS ONTO THE BATTLEFIELDS I COMMAND YOU TO _STORM ACROSS!_ "

Buzzub spoke weakly as he nursed his bruised cheek. "Yes…my king…"

Fortunately, Cor had grabbed the glass from her thrall's hands before the thrall, too, cowered fearfully, quaking terribly over the very sound of the king's loud and furious voice despite the fact that it was not her that was being shouted to. Cor reached down and grabbed one of her thrall's pink arms, pulling her up and caressing at her cheek softly in an effort to calm the terrified thrall down some. The thrall grasped at the Queen's leg, still shaking uncontrollably.

"Husband." Cor calmly began. "I ask for at least a day, if not two days, to research possibilities. If, in that time, I can come up with no alternative courses, you and I can board a warboat ourselves, and take our chances so that you can have the revenge our lands rightfully deserve."

The head of the furious king jerked angrily over to his wife. His look of rage did not soften, and Cor felt her thrall quake even more as Gos slowly advanced over to where she sat. His eyes locked on those of her wife, who calmly stared back at them.

He then raised a single index finger up in front of her eyes, his muscles tensed in his rage.

"One." He growled. "One day. No more, no less. ONE."

Cor looked entirely unfazed by her husband's intimidating posture. "Fine."

The thrall, who had buried her face against Cor's thigh, peeked up at Gos curiously.

Gos noticed this, and he vented a loud, bestial growl upon her which had the thrall hide her face once again, even more terrified.

Cor noticed that Gos was not returning to his throne seat. "Husband? Where are you going?"

"I need air." Gos growled, heading for the throne room entrance.

As a hand rubbed soothingly against her thrall's cheek, Cor watched her husband leave in his huff, and she sighed, slowly shaking her head as she brought the full glass she held in her other hand to her lips.


	9. IX: Complete Deceit

**IX: Complete Deceit**

 _"Run, girl! Run, Dorothy! Good dog!"_

Dorothy seemed to faintly remember these words as she dashed towards Blinkie's eight-sided home on her mission to acquire the spellbooks Tilda wanted. At first, she was running solely on her digitigrade legs, but as the canine girl neared her destination, she found that she moved a lot quicker when she lowered to all fours.

The words, however, seemed to come from…Blinkie? That made no sense to her. Wasn't Blinkie an enemy? Wasn't she _supposed_ to be an enemy? When did she speak those words, and in such a loving manner?

She had no answers, and she nevertheless set this conundrum aside as Dorothy slowed her canine run, having sighted Blinkie's abode. She kept a considerable distance between herself and the eight-sided lair, hoping she would not be spotted by any of the five potent witches that were still in the area.

From what she could see, the eight-sided home was still a partial wreck from the rhino's earlier attack. Remembering what the lion taught her about using scents, Dorothy attempted investigative whiffs wherever she deemed it necessary as she moved carefully around the oddly-shaped residence, looking for an entry point, and waiting for an opportunity to slip quietly inside to begin her search.

One of those more spicy scents, which she surmised to be the witches themselves, seemed to be in about five separate areas around Blinkie's home…but one such scent was growing stronger. Closer.

Apparently, one of those witches was heading in her direction.

Dashing away from where she was, Dorothy padded away a short distance, hoping she would not be seen. She was able to keep that particular area outside of the home in sight from where she chose to hide, still taking occasional whiffs in case others might have been alerted.

Only one witch, however, curiously stepped into the area, and chose to linger.

It was to Dorothy's mild relief that it was not Blinkie, although a part of her could not help but be curious as to where she was. She tried not to let this distract her, though, in her attempt to get into the eight-sided house.

As Dorothy remained concealed, waiting for the witch to leave, she caught another strong scent of spice incoming. In the next moment, a second witch joined the first.

This one looked a bit irritated. "How hard can it be to find spider silk?" She griped.

"Well, obviously, it's not where I _thought_ it would be, Marge!" The first witch shot back. She then looked a bit aghast. "Wait…you don't think it could have been…shattered? From the charge of that…"

"No, no." Marge shook her head. "Mistress Blinkie assessed the damage after the rhino's attack. The reagents weren't affected. Now keep looking, Cheralyn. We need to prepare the bait before we begin our push on those Emerald City idiots."

"Let's hope that stupid little chimp still has a craving for bananas." Cheralyn's eyes then lit up. "Ah, there it is. Behind the rabbit's clavicle."

No doubt, Dorothy surmised to herself, that they were talking about an attempt to capture Trot, and extract the dreaded stone from her belly. The canine girl hoped that the Lion was smart enough to keep her out of sight.

"Did Mistress Blinkie say anything about our little novices?" Cheralyn was heard saying as she rose to her feet.

"Bah! I never really cared for those mewling little brats." Marge answered as they both began to leave the room. "When they're that young, they're easily broken. We'll probably have to kill them all…"

Marge's voice trailed off as they moved out of sight, but Dorothy obviously heard enough. No doubt this would be leverage in convincing their captive witch apprentices to aid the Legion of Courage in their battle against the rest of Blinkie's coven.

Unless they somehow knew Dorothy was there, which was a quite ominous possibility.

Still, Dorothy had a job to do, and she was not about to fail the great king of the quadling beasts, nor his legion. As much as she had been taught human scents, however, by the Lion, it wasn't a human she was tasked to find. She was supposed to be looking for spellbooks.

But what kind of scent does a spellbook have, the canine girl wondered to herself? Whatever tomes were here had to be old, so perhaps she would need to pick up on the scent of worn, moldy pages once she found a way to penetrate the place.

Although her conscious human mind had been in a haze during her time under the influence of the beast collar, Dorothy's mind was potent enough to pick up on trace memories, so she found some familiarity to the place, and she had Blinkie to thank for that as she had taken her now liberated pet for a walk around it.

There was also the matter of the lingering damage from Biff's assault, as well. Dorothy figured she could find a broken area through which she could quietly pad in. Occasional whiffs in the air confirmed that the witches were stationary, and in another room.

The canine girl just hoped that they weren't in the room where any of the desired spellbooks were located.

It was to Dorothy's handicap, too, that Blinkie did not exactly give her pet any kind of grand tour of her eight-sided home during the time she spent under her control, and she couldn't recall whether or not the locations within the home she had been in had any visible books or bookcases.

Fortunately, she spotted a crack in the exterior of one of the side of the haven that was large enough for her to fit through. Moving towards it slowly and silently, she kept sniffing as she neared the narrow breach.

Nothing human was in its close vicinity.

The squeeze was tight, and her fur made moving through it a little tougher than she thought in her efforts to keep from making any noise, but Dorothy was able to make it through. Her tail wagged in her feeling of relief as she crouched low, continuing to move slowly within the area she had penetrated.

Unfortunately, there were no books in this portion of the eight-sided home. In fact, this area looked like a dressing room of some sort. There were many closets here, and a few robes draped over comfy-looking seats. Faint human scents were on these robes.

There was also two doors leading to two other portions of the house. One to the east, and one to the west.

Only the one to the east was slightly ajar.

As she neared it, she also picked up a human scent, and one that seemed strangely…frigid.

Was this the one whose heart had literally been frozen, Dorothy wondered? Was this the Princess Gloria?

The scent was stationary as the canine girl slowly and quietly approached the door. She made every effort to keep the claw tips on her paws from impacting the hard stone floor.

Unfortunately, the door was not open wide enough for her to get a good look inside.

Her next whiff, however, caught another human scent. Behind her, and closing fast. Not a spicy scent, however, but a fast-approaching presence nevertheless.

All she could find to hide beneath was a table, but this table was fortunately within the room's shady areas. It was Dorothy's only hope, and she quickly moved beneath it.

The west door was opened roughly, the door swinging in and slamming against the wall beside it, as a single young male moved with angry steps toward the east door. He seemed focused, apparently, on confronting Gloria, as his eyes went nowhere else upon crossing through.

The canine girl surmised this young man to be the one called Goog. As the door was now open wide, she was certain she would be able to hear them speak, if not shout angrily.

Gloria's voice sounded irritated after letting out a loud sigh. "What do you want _now?_ "

"Those witches are obsessing over that monkey girl." The man's voice replied. "I thought I saw something move in the woods outside. We should get _out_ of here. I can take you someplace safe, if you'd let me. An island. One of two. Regos, or Coreg…"

Dorothy then heard a vicious smack against skin, and she heard the man groan from the impact. "Get your hands _off_ me, Goog! I warned you not to touch me again!"

A moment of silence followed, after which Goog's voice spoke once again. "You don't have any witches to hide behind this time, Princess…and I know enough about witches to know that unless you were born with a witch's mark, which I know you don't have, you won't be able to learn anything from those spellbooks."

"You touch me again, I will cut you to pieces." Gloria viciously shot back. As she spoke, Dorothy heard the sound of a blade being unsheathed. " _Don't tempt me._ "

After a moment, Goog himself sighed irritably. "I knew it was a mistake for those witches to do this to you. I should ask them to freeze _my_ heart. Maybe then, you could finally bring yourself to love me."

"Fat chance." Gloria coldly responded. "I'd sooner wrap one of those beast collars around your neck. Not that you'd behave any differently than you already do."

After another quiet moment, Goog spoke once again. "Thirty-nine times, I've tried." Dorothy heard Goog step slowly out of the room, and back into the one where the canine girl was hiding.

He then turned back towards Gloria, nursing a welt at his cheek with one hand. "I _will_ have you at forty."

Goog angrily stepped back through the west door, closing it behind him. Dorothy heard Gloria let out another loud sigh of irritation, followed by the sound of a page turning.

The east door was still wide open.

Dorothy hoped that Gloria was facing away from the door as she slowly came out from under the table to get a peek inside the adjoining room, which was now confirmed to have the spellbooks she was tasked to find.

A short distance from the door, she took a peek inside.

Unfortunately, Gloria was sitting at an angle. She could see her white-skinned face. The young princess held the open book in front of her with both hands, resting it on her lap, her eyes looking down unto its content curiously.

Dorothy began to backtrack, a step at a time…

"Why they insist on writing these things with such strange shapes, I'll never know." Gloria suddenly remarked, out loud, seemingly to no one in particular.

Dorothy froze nevertheless. She knew she was out of Gloria's line of sight now.

"If you don't step out and approach me, I scream." Gloria calmly and coldly remarked once again. "Loud enough for the others to hear. My peripheral vision caught your moving shadows, so you might as well give it up." Dorothy then heard a book snap shut.

Silently sighing in her obvious defeat, Dorothy stepped over to stand a short distance from the frigid young princess, who regarded the canine girl coldly.

"Oh, it's you." Gloria quietly remarked. "Blinkie's pet doggie. Have you decided to return to your natural owner? I can call her over here if you like."

Dorothy frowned defiantly to the bewitched girl. "I'm _not_ her pet."

"Oh, but the two of you were so _close,_ girl." Gloria mused, keeping her voice surprisingly quiet, yet maintaining its coldness. "All that panting and whimpering as that one-eyed crone doted on you so pathetically. I have to admit, it was amusing seeing you led around on a leash."

The canine girl continued to stare angrily at the smirking princess, not saying a word in response.

"Well? Something on your mind, dog?" Gloria quirked an eyebrow in mock curiosity. "Go on, then. _Speak._ "

" _Ruf…!_ " Dorothy's front paws went right to her mouth as her eyes boggled over the involuntary bark. Fortunately, it wasn't _too_ loud an utterance, but it made Gloria cruelly giggle all the same.

"Poooooor, pooooor Dorothy." Gloria shook her head, smiling wickedly, as she spoke. "Honestly…I wonder just how deep your own enchantment runs." The blue-veined princess then frowned in curiosity. "So…if you're not here for a nice petting from Blinkie, why are you here? Hmmmm?"

Dorothy had to fight an urge to lunge. She _really_ wanted to. It was enough that she had to suppress a need to growl angrily. Her eyes alternated between the princess and the nearby books.

"Shall I scream?" Gloria once again warned. "Blow your precious little cover?"

Dorothy narrowed her eyes. "I'm surprised you haven't done it anyway."

Gloria had to smirk at this. "I suppose you think I'm helping you, don't you? Well, get this straight, you furry, flea-bitten beast. I didn't like you before, and I still don't like you. I don't like your friends, and I particularly hate Blinkie and her stupid witches for being so secretive. The only reason I tolerate them is because their actions amuse me. Especially when Blinkie turned you into her dog."

"You're under a spell." Dorothy countered. "You're not yourself."

"Oh, boo-hoo." Gloria coldly shot back. "'I can no longer love anyone again'. GOOD. Love is _baggage._ Needless. _Stupid._ Anyone who even feels a hint of it is wasting their time. Watching you and Blinkie playing around like giddy brats _nauseated_ me while you were here. Worse than having to watch everyone in Jinxland cry and complain in the town square over me and that stupid gardener's boy moments before I turned them all to stone."

"You must really want to kill Pon then." Dorothy hoped that the reverse psychology inherent in the suggestion would provoke some kind of a reaction, despite the enchantment. "Put him out of his misery."

To Dorothy's surprise, Gloria hesitated…and even flinched…before giving her reply.

"Pon…" Her moment of hesitation lingered for a moment…

…and then, the princess took note of Dorothy's eyes going between her and the books. "…hmmmm…did you come here to get one of _these,_ doggie?" She then held out the book that was in her lap.

Dorothy's eyes widened, anxious despite herself. She felt her tail wag wildly behind her. Gloria, now grinning wickedly once again, waved the book back and forth slowly, and the canine girl found her head and her gaze following it, still feeling her tail wag with excitement.

"Ohhh, yes, you do." Gloria continued waving it around, just out of Dorothy's reach. "You _really_ want this, don't you?"

At this point, a loud commotion could be heard from out front. Sounds of a struggle, in fact. The Legion's diversionary action had begun!

In that moment, Gloria stopped to look in the direction of the apparent fighting. She still held to the spellbook with a tight grip.

That is, until Dorothy clamped her canine jaws, instinctively, upon Gloria's wrist, biting hard. The princess yelped in pain as the book she held dropped to the floor. Quickly scooping it up, the canine girl raced for the crack she had used to enter the eight-sided haven just as Gloria began to chase after her.

As Dorothy began to pad away from Blinkie's home, she saw that Shade, Brocius, and Brawn were keeping a couple of the other witches busy with their diversionary tactics, effectively keeping them from being able to engage any manner of magic spell. The canine girl, however, did not stop to watch. She had caught this in a brief glimpse as she moved, and she kept padding away as fast as her digitigrade legs could, hoping that the book she had with her would be of some help.

She then heard Blinkie's voice, at a distance, behind her. "Take that dog girl down, Rouse! Bring her back to me alive!"

As Blinkie spoke, Gloria…who had begun her own pursuit for the canine Kansas girl…found herself grabbed and pulled away by a pair of strong, yet wrinkled hands. Her eyes boggled as the surprisingly firm grip of the old man's arms pinned her own arms to the sides. Her struggling was useless as the stronger man continued to pull her away.

The sound of the roar of a tigress then filled the air above Dorothy as it seemed Rouse had leaped into the air and was about to touch down close behind her, effectively making the dog girl's attempt at escape even more difficult.

But Dorothy just kept running regardless. She had to at least make it to HQ, or at least get within sight of it.

Rouse was on the ground now, and she was _very_ close behind the canine girl. Dorothy could hear the tigress panting angrily, and she expected to feel her feline pursuer's claws dig deep into her furry back in one savage swipe at any moment…

…but she instead heard a thud right behind her head, and Rouse yelping in pain.

Dorothy continued, unopposed, towards the cottage HQ as Rouse held the paw that had struck something hard. She stopped her pursuit, looking around with an angry snarl, eager to face whoever it was that interrupted her pursuit.

Her assailant stepped out from behind one of the nearby trees. A mass of black and white fur, holding a long pole made of bamboo.

Bo didn't say a word. She was already in a fighting stance, and ready to receive Rouse's first attack, which she knew would come quickly given the tigress's potent, but flawed battle habits.

The panda noticed that Rouse had dug one of her hind paws into the ground when steadying herself. Bo expected this paw to fire upwards, towards her eyes, and so she capably evaded the burst of soil that was meant to momentarily blind her.

Although Bo was certainly larger in relative mass compared to the more limber Rouse, this never handicapped the discipline officer of the Legion of Courage, and so she was able to sidestep and block the flurry of blows Rouse attempted in her opening attack. Bo knew Rouse was fast, but she also knew that compelling her into a rage would unbalance her, and Bo could find an opportunity to try and end the fight with a well-placed strike.

Bo's only worry was in the possibility that one of the witches would move in to lend some manner of magical assist. Said worries were momentary, however, compared to the need to neutralize Rouse. The panda hoped that a sharp-enough blow to her head would break whatever enchantment they had cast upon the potent fighter's mind.

With all of Rouse's initial attacks failing to connect, the two fighters paced around in their face-off. "All my mass, kitty-cat." Bo knew Rouse _hated_ being called any kind of kitten, or kitty-cat. "And you can't even _hit_ me?"

Rouse's eyes flared with fury as she lunged forward once again, arcing both her front paws out, and then following up with attempted leaping strikes from her rear paws. Bo was able to avoid the dual-paw strike, and then used her staff to block Rouse's airborne kicks.

"Always so quick to anger." Bo taunted, maintaining her concentration in the next face-off. "You'll always be a novice to me, little kitty."

"SHUT UP!" Rouse roared furiously. "I CAN BEAT YOU! I CAN BEAT _ANYONE!_ "

Bo smirked, adopting another combat stance. "Prove it."

Side-stepping Rouse's next rage-filled lunge, Bo quickly held the end of her staff out towards the angry face of the tigress, who tried to bat it away with a lightning-fast blow. Bo whirled the weapon in a small circle, keeping it mere inches from Rouse's face as they circled around. Five times, Rouse tried furiously to bat it away. Five times, Rouse could not get the end of the firmly-held staff away from her face.

Another bellow of frustrated anger emerged from Rouse's jaws as she lunged once again. Side-stepping, Bo whirled the staff around and struck it sharply against Rouse's furry head. The blow was powerful enough to momentarily jar the senses of the tigress, but she was able to regain them with a few shakes of her head.

"I'm not even _sweating._ " Bo taunted. " _Hit_ me already!"

Rouse's next attack was more of a berserker rage. Blow after blow was dealt with unrestrained fury. Attempted rakes by the claws of the tigress which were clearly killing blows came within an inch of Bo's mass, and Rouse did not let up. She was absolutely determined to defeat the panda. Bo hoped that this manner of fury would significantly tire Rouse, but there seemed to be no indication of this just yet.

A strong back-paw blow finally connected with the panda's jaw, and Bo's head jerked to the side with the force of the strike.

Bo had to get a bit of distance from the tigress now, and she was able to roll a short distance away from Rouse, who was on all fours now, and panting heavily.

The panda rubbed at her jaw. "About _time_ you got lucky."

"I told you." Rouse was practically grinning with satisfaction. "I told you I could beat you."

Bo quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, we're not done yet, kitty."

"Stop _calling_ me that!" Rouse growled.

The voice of one of the witches suddenly interrupted the moment. " _Infirmare dilaceratis mem..._ "

The moment she heard the witch begin speaking the words of an obvious spell, Rouse dashed towards the source with an infuriated expression. Bo could not see how the tigress silenced her, but she certainly heard the witch's scream of agony, no doubt the result of an incapacitating blow.

She then heard Rouse's enraged voice. " _Keep your spells out of this!_ "

Once again, she lunged towards Bo furiously, and the battle was on again. "I don't… _need_ spells…to take…you… _down!_ " Rouse growled as she continued her relentless attacks on the defending panda.

By this point, however, Bo was beginning to feel signs of fatigue. Her joints began to ache from the strain of defending and evading, and she began panting. Two of Rouse's blows found their marks, although these were solid hits, and not the occasional attempts by the tigress to draw blood with a furious raking strike.

Rouse, however, was also beginning to tire in her mad determination to defeat Bo. She, too, began to pant in her growing exhaustion.

In the end, however, it was Bo who collapsed from another three solid blows, and the discipline officer of the Legion of Courage was finally on her back as Rouse, who was panting very heavily now, planted one of her hind paws on Bo's chest, grinning triumphantly…and exhaustedly…as she glared down at the beaten panda.

"I…I got…you…" Rouse growled through her panting. "…I finally… _beat_ you…"

Bo slowly nodded, sounding a little more weak as she spoke. "S…seems…you make up…for your weaknesses…in raw tenacity."

"I got you…" Rouse repeated, still panting very heavily. "…I _got you_ …"

The victorious tigress, however, was so spent in her energy that she was unable to prevent a pair of furry arms from wrapping around her from behind. They were the arms of a bear, and they began to squeeze very tightly.

It did not take long for Rouse to pass out from the strain, and Brawn carefully lowered her unconscious body to the ground.

Brocius was there as well, and he quickly stepped over to tend to Bo.

The panda glanced wearily up at the gorilla. "W…witches?"

"Subdued." Brocius assured. "The only one we couldn't account for was Blinkie herself. We don't know where she is."

Brocius and Brawn both heard the padded footfalls of someone racing over to them, and they turned to face the familiar canine girl as she stopped in front of them.

Dorothy's voice sounded very distressed as she spoke to Brocius. "You didn't have Trot join in the fight against the witches, did you?"

"Not at all." Brocius answered. "She wanted to help, but I demanded that she stay at HQ. Why?"

"Well…she's not there now!" Dorothy remarked. "We looked _everywhere._ She's _gone!_ "

As Brocius had confirmed that he could not find Blinkie, the one who had wanted Trot to begin with, the gorilla could not help but wonder if, for all their accomplishments, it was all for nothing.

* * *

Bilbil provided the necessary explanations about their need to find the Medusa Stone to Inga, but the now gray-bodied, elven-eared young boy's eyes redirected to the petrified form of the monster called Stheno.

Fortunately, Bilbil had finished making the explanations as Inga slowly stepped towards the stone statue, tilting his head curiously.

"She's in there." Inga quietly remarked, placing a gray-skinned hand upon the surface of the statue. "Angry. Angry that she's been…caged…by her own body."

"With all respect, Prince Inga…" Bilbil interjected, sounding a touch impatient. "…it's not the creature herself that we're looking for. It's her eye, just as I had said."

"I know, I know. I heard you." Inga responded, although his eyes were still on Stheno's petrified pose. "But…this is the only unusual rock formation in the whole cave."

Bilbil let out a sigh of frustration. "Roquat told us you could guide us to the stone. You'd think he could at least _teach_ you how you could do that!"

Rinkitink shrugged, a slight smile on his face. "Maybe he could ask the rocks?" The large man then moved to one of the cave's walls. "Excuse me, Mr. Rock…could you tell me where I could find a stone that used to be an eye?" Once again, he chuckled greatly at his own mirth, much to Bilbil's visible irritation.

But as much as the human mind could only comprehend such an endeavor as being entirely silly, Inga was no longer human. He was a nome, and as such, he shared Roquat's affinity for the rocks and the mineral deposits of the world. Despite that which both Rinkitink and Bilbil perceived as silliness, Inga figured that such a strange request would actually be worth a try, now that he was essentially a rock fairy.

The words of the conversation went unheard, and Inga's lips did not move as he faced one of the cave walls, placing his gray hands against it and forming the words in his mind in what he initially imagined might turn out to be a useless idea.

 _Ummm…where can I find a stone that…uh…was once…the eye of…Stheno?_

After a moment…and to Inga's considerable surprise…thoughts were returned to him in response!

 _Where there was once a removed stone enchanted by curse, it has been taken away._

Inga blinked, his eyes wide. _Oh! Um…so…it's not anywhere on the island? Not on Regos, or Coregos?_

 _No._

Bilbil and Rinkitink gazed curiously at the nome as Inga turned to face them.

"It's not on either one of the islands." Inga remarked. "Not on Regos, nor Coregos."

Rinkitink seemed amazed at this. "My dear Inga…did you just…"

"Yeah." Inga replied, looking a bit amazed himself. "I guess I did."

It was Bilbil, however, who suggested another related tactic, seeing as how Rinkitink's apparently ridiculous suggestion warranted results. "So…you asked the island, basically. But…" the goat looked to the statue. "…have you asked _that?_ It's not part of the island, after all. You might get different information from it."

"Well…" Inga stepped over to the statue of the horrible-looking, serpentine monster. "…I'll try."

The young nome placed his hands against the stone surface of what was once a raging gorgon.

 _Stheno…ummmm…where did your right eye go?_

A long, silent moment passed. Inga had to conclude that this effort was fruitless. He began to turn back to…

 _FREE ME!_

The voice of the raging gorgon herself seemed to roar within him. Inga reacted as if he had been given a sudden jolt of electricity. His eyes boggled in his surprise.

 _First, I am taken to some silly place called Jinxland, and now I am in some stupid monkey's BELLY! GET ME OUT OF HERE!_

He heard nothing more from the voice. Bilbil and Rinkitink maintained their puzzled expressions as their gazes lingered on the nome.

Inga initially frowned in confusion, his head angled down in his effort to comprehend what he had learned. He then brought his gray, white-haired head up to look upon his curious friends.

"Uh…" Inga began. "…does anyone know where I can find a place called…Jinxland?"

Bilbil shook his furry head. "Never heard of it. I guess that's where we need to go?"

Inga nodded.

"I don't know where it is, either…" Rinkitink began, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, but his expression became a little more hopeful. "…but I know someone who might! That's the good news!"

Bilbil looked wary now. "And the bad news?"

Rinkitink shrugged, smiling meekly. "We need a boat. The person in question who might know is in Gilgad, the capital city of my land."

"Which will take us _four days to get to!_ " Bilbil incredulously responded. " _Four whole days!_ "

"Well, unless you know of a quicker way to get us over there, I'd say this is our best possible option, old friend." Rinkitink replied.

Inga nodded. "Now we just have to get ourselves a boat." He then patted at the pockets of his clothes. His eyes then widened. "Hey! What happened to…"

Rinkitink, chuckling, pulled the pearls he had borrowed while the boy was sleeping, and held them out to the nome. "Oops! Hee hee…never told you we needed to borrow them while you were sleeping."

"Which reminds me." Bilbil remarked. "We brought you breakfast."

Inga looked at one of the meat offerings Rinkitink had taken, and placed it in his mouth, chewing on it for a bit. His expression then soured, even though he managed to swallow it. "Blech!"

Rinkitink looked surprised. "That's funny…I thought you _liked_ meatstalk meat."

Bilbil, rolling his eyes, whispered this rationale to the heavy-set monarch after nudging him hard with his horned head. "He was _human_ back then, dummy."

"Oh!" Rinkitink blushed in his embarrassment. "Oops!"

"I'm not hungry anyway." Inga remarked. "Let's just see about getting ourselves one of those boats."

Rinkitink and Bilbil followed the formerly human prince out of the cave, advancing carefully out into the early morning sky, which was already bright enough for the trio to be able to see things around them as they moved.

They were unopposed as they journeyed back towards the populated portion of the island…but they had to stop and hide, as they saw that the roads were now heavy with a surprising and unusual sight.

Inga had to frown in his utter confusion. "Why are they all heading towards the water?"

"Indeed!" Rinkitink similarly gazed in his puzzlement. "It's like they're all going for a morning swim!"

Bilbil made a more ominous inquiry. "Who are all those women?"

At this, a young, beautiful, curly-haired blonde nearest to their hiding space turned in their direction. Like the others, she wore a bra with straps made of seaweed, connected to a pair of clamshells which covered the tops of her breasts. This particular woman wore what appeared to be a loose-fitting, scaly green skirt. Her golden blond hair hung down loosely in ringlets as she lingered her beautiful blue eyes upon these three curious eavesdroppers.

As they saw that the many soldiers being led to the ocean were beginning strange, magical mutations while lost to an apparent daze…

…Rinkitink couldn't help but wonder what these women, who were likely the culprits behind this mass exodus to the seas, were going to do to him and his two friends.

* * *

If one must know anything about being one of the erbs, it is that they are unambiguously evil, and that the only real delight they will admit to is in deceiving, and seeing others suffer. The satisfaction of seeing their dastardly plans succeed is another perk of being one of these unrepentant menaces.

A phanfasm is no different, and so the phanfasm masquerading as Oscar Diggs delighted in not only deceiving Glinda's handmaidens into thinking he truly was the Wizard of Oz, but also in viewing the images of the little girl the real Oscar had been observing since settling into the room with the large crystal ball.

Watching the pink-skinned thrall that had once been the brave and resourceful Betsy Bobbin quiver not for being cold, but for being perpetually afraid…even as she tried to sleep...during the night certainly entertained the devious phanfasm considerably.

In the early morning hours, however, the disguised phanfasm grew a bit bored watching one girl…and all the other pink-skinned thralls on the island…attempt to slumber so fitfully. He evaporated the image with a circular hover of his hand and rose from his seat to find a weapon of some sort within the room.

He judged that it was time to permanently silence the real Oscar Diggs, whose distressed moans he began to hear from behind the closet the phanfasm had placed him in.

As he looked for an appropriate blade, however, the sealed entrance doors to the room suddenly exploded inwards, and he saw a glaring, tin-plated female humanoid heading right for him. She seized him quickly and roughly before he could say a word of protest, grabbing his mouth before he could utter a single cry for help.

A second woman…this one more flesh and blood, and much more beautiful by human standards…also entered. She, too, glared upon the disguised phanfasm as he fruitlessly struggled.

Curious handmaidens now began to fill the room, one of them heading for the closet where she had heard the sounds of pained moaning. Upon opening it, her eyes widened upon seeing the real Oscar Diggs struggling against tight bonds at his wrists and at his ankles. He was also gagged with a length of knotted cloth, tied tightly against his mouth.

As the handmaidens busied themselves with freeing the weary, and hungry-looking old man, the tin woman…Empress Nimmie Amee…effortlessly dragged the writhing, growling impostor towards the Palace exit.

Her fairy companion…Polychrome…followed close behind.

Once they were outside, they noticed that the impostor was now making weird screeching noises, very similar to that of a distressed bird. As he gazed furiously at the fairy girl who balletically stepped in front of him, she waved her glowing hands in front of him, moving those hands from the front of his head down along his body, and right down to his feet slowly. The appearance of Oscar Diggs now began to evaporate, clothes and all, to the point where a well-toned humanoid body…wearing only a loincloth, and bearing the head of an owl…remained tightly held in the tin-plated arms of the winkie empress.

"Well, what do we have here?" Polychrome's expression soured. "A _phanfasm_."

"You're going to _regret_ this, fairy girl." The owl phanfasm calmly warned. "You, and all the human filth you and Ozma have sworn to protect."

"So I guess that so-called 'paradise' the First and Foremost created within Mount Phantastico wasn't enough for your lot?" Polychrome mused, quirking an eyebrow. "If anyone is going to regret causing trouble in Oz, it's you and the rest of the phanfasms."

"Ozma and Glinda are gone, fairy girl." The phanfasm reminded. "So are those meddlesome human brats they've been doting on."

"If I have to take you all on myself, I will." Nimmie reminded. "I certainly have the stamina for it."

"Shall we put that to the test?" The phanfasm then remarked, apparently knowing something his two captors did not. "GO!"

One had the head of a tiger, the other the head of a panther. They were swift, and vicious as they suddenly set upon both Polychrome and Nimmie. The panther phanfasm landed a blow sharp enough to senselessly knock the fairy to the ground while the tiger, being the stronger of the two, grabbed the tin woman and began wrenching her head around after clamping his jaws down upon it.

Both the panther and the tiger was able to free the owl phanfasm from Nimmie's grip, and the impostor phanfasm distanced himself quickly from his neutralized captors. The tiger phanfasm amusedly dodged Nimmie's attempts to strike him, her determination making her unaware of the panther phanfasm grabbing her from behind and tossing her a short distance away.

By the time Polychrome had gotten to her feet, still a bit dazed from the solid strike she had received, she was able to see three black humanoids with bat heads, and large bat-wings, grab all three phanfasms with firm grips and take to the skies quickly, no doubt heading in the direction of Mount Phantastico.

The fairy looked over in Nimmie's direction, and she saw that the tin woman's head was still wrenched unnaturally from the brutal tiger phanfasm's savage head-jerks. Assisted by her fairy magic, Polychrome was able to re-align the tin woman's head correctly, although there were still ugly tooth impressions around her head from where the jaws of the phanfasm's large mouth had been.

"I'm sorry, Polychrome." Nimmie lamented. "I'm afraid I'm not much of a fighter. Not yet, anyway."

"Those other phanfasms must have been stationed here, disguised as animals through the magic of the First and Foremost, awaiting a signal from the owl." Polychrome surmised aloud as she helped the crestfallen tin empress to her feet. "Don't feel too bad. Those phanfasms are ferocious fighters. Even trained warriors would have a difficult time locking horns with them." The fairy then gestured to Nimmie to follow. "Come…we should tend to Mr. Diggs."

Moving back into Glinda's palace, they confirmed that not only had Oscar been freed, he was also being tended to by many handmaidens. Some had provided him with food, while others were fixing his hair as he sat before the crystal ball and attempted to summon up an image within it.

Both Nimmie and Polychrome silently stood behind Oscar as the image of Betsy Bobbin went from a blur to a sharp focus.

All eyes in the room widened in surprise at what they saw.

* * *

As one of the perpetually fearful 'thralls' on the island, the pink-skinned, lavender-haired girl that was once Betsy Bobbin found it entirely difficult to sleep. The natural concern, of course, was not only their fear of the dark, but also the fear that they would have a terrible nightmare as well.

Without being aware of it, however, they would slip into a deep sleep anyway, despite their overwhelming fears. The slightest touch, however, would immediately stir the thralls from their unexpected sleep.

Pleasing the ones the thralls had been ordained to serve was the closest thing to a satisfying dream that any given thrall would have. In the case of the Queen's thrall, it was the expectancy of such a dream that finally settled her shaking body to the point where she closed her eyes, and slowed her breathing.

In shifting her position on the cold, hard floor, however, the Queen's thrall's eyes opened a crack…

…and she saw movement within the throne room. Five blurry shapes, investigating the room's interior.

Naturally, fear set in, and her body once again began to shake in terror as the Queen's thrall backtracked to an area behind the throne seats where both husband and wife had apparently fallen asleep. Cor had trained her little thrall to retreat to the shadows of this area the previous evening, should the throne room ever be penetrated by strangers or acknowledged enemies. Cor had also commanded her to keep her shaky breathing as slow as possible, so that the thrall would not be so easily detected.

As she hid, she heard voices. She was able to recognize those of the King and the Queen, but the others were female voices, and they sounded quite lovely.

Gos had let out a loud growl before hearing the shushing sound from one of the women.

"Be silent now." She spoke in a hushed tone. "The seas await you, great one."

"Eeeerrrhhhh…ss..sseeas…." Gos still sounded tired, but he seemed to stir from this as his tone went angry once again. "… _seas?_ Wha… _who are you?_ You _dare_ to…"

"SHHHHHHHHH." Two female voices had apparently set upon Gos now, hushing him as the first voice continued to speak. "Let it go, Gos. Let it all go. The seas await you now. Stake your claim, great one. The seeeeaaaasss….nothing but the seeeeeeaaaaasss…"

"I…I…" It was as if Gos was trying to resist whatever was being imposed on him. "….eeerrrrrrhhhh…."

The Queen's thrall then heard the heavy footfalls of the King of Regos distancing themselves from his own throne.

But as she began to hear Queen Cor's mumbles, the Queen's thrall felt a hand upon her shoulder, and she gasped loudly, immediately turning to face whoever was now behind her.

"Shhhhhhh." The beautiful-looking woman, who wore partial clamshells over her breasts and had a very nice-looking headdress on, smiled to the Queen's thrall as she looked fearfully at the woman. "You'll be just fine. Don't worry. Come on out of there."

"No…NOOO!" The thrall rapidly shook her head in terror, recoiling from the touch of this intruder. "D-don't touch me! Stay away! Nonononononononono!"

Although the adolescent-aged woman was still smiling, she sighed. She then extended a slender hand, and spoke in a voice which easily overcame the thrall's perpetual fear and imparted her suggestion magically. "Come on out of there."

Lost to the woman's enchantment, all that mattered to the thrall now was leaving the spot she had been instructed to hide in. Once the very beautiful-looking woman led her out, she then placed her hand over the thrall's mouth. As her terror began to set back in, it began to weaken in the very next moment.

The thrall's widened eyes, which were still pink in color, now began to lose its unnatural pink appearance, being replaced with a more human color. Her hairless, bright pink skin dissolved as the woman's hand lingered upon the thrall's mouth, being replaced with the lightly-haired, human-colored softness of a young girl. A minor touch of nausea was then felt as a sharp warmth emerged up from her gut, and out of her mouth as the woman's hand slowly pulled away from the girl's mouth.

In this moment, memories that had been magically suppressed filled her confused mind, providing clarity as her restored eyes began blinking rapidly.

The fully restored Betsy Bobbin saw what looked to be a large, pink mote of energy in the woman's open hand, which then shrank in size until it was completely gone.

She looked to the beautiful woman, frowning with a different kind of confusion. "Who…who're you?" She quietly asked.

The woman smiled as she turned her eyes to meet Betsy's. "Clia. And you?"

"B-Betsy. I'm Betsy Bobbin."

"Thrall!" It was Queen Cor's voice, which only attracted Betsy in the sense that she knew this was an enemy's voice. One which she knew had cast a terrible spell upon her. "Thrall…t-to me…husband…"

Two women, similar in appearance to Clia, were guiding the apparently delirious ruler of Coregos out of her seat and towards the throne room's exit. "Shhhhh…" one of them spoke tenderly to her. "…the seas await you…shhhhh…"

"What's goin' on?" Betsy asked.

Clia stayed silent for a moment, watching both the King and the Queen as they were led from their throne seats. She then turned to Betsy once again. "Let's go outside and get a bit of fresh air, Betsy."

Although she was still confused, Betsy nevertheless followed Clia out of the room. Moreso to see just what these other women around Cor were going to do to her.

Stepping out into the open air at last, Betsy saw that the pedestrian lanes on the island were full. It was, apparently, a mass exodus towards the seas. Other women, looking similar to Clia save for the fact that they did not have a headdress on, were escorting the brutal warriors of Regos and the disciplined soldiers of Coregos that were on the island towards the sands that preceded the watery depths beyond its edge, speaking softly to them as they moved.

Not all of the humans on the island were brought to the oceans, though. Some of the more innocent-looking ones looked upon their former oppressors curiously, and Betsy figured that these were once the pink-skinned servants she had seen as she was brought to the throne room to confront the King and Queen.

A disturbing thought then occurred to her, and she turned to Clia. "I wasn't…one o' those pink people, was I?"

The young woman nodded. "I'm afraid so, dear. Long ago, the people on this island found a cave that had an enchanted mineral deposit which the Queen exploited as a means to enslave the weak. As I understand it, they couldn't mine any deeper for more because there was some kind of serpentine beast in there which could turn people to stone. I don't know much more than that, but…we at least know that those Cor affected don't deserve the fates of your more…unrepentant oppressors."

It was not until their bare feet had touched the water that the enchanted warriors and soldiers began to change. Their bodies seemed to be warping and bloating out of their human shapes, their eyes widening and, in some cases, growing a little larger. Arms began flattening to the shape of fins, and rows of slits opened up to form a set of gills as they fell into the shallow waters, their bodies eventually conforming to those of various sea creatures. If they did not become one of the many varieties of fishes, they were transformed to become sharks, manta rays, eels...not one of the savage warriors were spared this fate.

King Gos himself seemed to thrash against this fate, but his body continued to bloat and warp from the magic the women had forced upon him. His skin became a deep gray in color, and his face and neck bulged and warped. His eyes had become as dark as a doll's as his mouth widened, exposing rows of sharp teeth as the fins that had once been his arms flapped wildly. Gills formed on either side of his now narrow body as his legs magically fused together to form one great big fin. The great white shark that had once been King Gos then toppled forward into the water, and he quickly disappeared beneath the surface as his body finished its vivid transformation.

Betsy's eyes, however, were on Cor. What was _she_ to become, she wondered to herself?

Cor was quick to collapse the moment the water touched her bare feet, and her own body began to shake as the color of her skin blackened, save for a distinct white blotch above her eyes. Her own mouth was growing larger, as well, as her body bloated out considerably. The lower half of her body went pale white, a line separating the blackness above from the white areas below as a pointed fin bulged up from Cor's back. Rows of teeth, smaller than those that her husband had grown, could be seen in her large mouth as gills formed on either side of her body. Cor's form continued to bloat larger and larger, the fins that had once been human arms batting against the shallow waters beneath her as her own legs fused together to form one big fin.

But the orca…the killer whale…Cor had become could not move deeper into the seas. She was still landlocked.

It was Betsy, however, who first reacted to the distressed reaction of the whale, and she sympathetically moved to try and push the giant whale into the seas as Cor's transformation completed. Unable to do it on her own, others joined Betsy, many of them former thralls. Eventually, they were able to slide Cor far enough for her to slip beneath the ocean surface, where she was to begin her new life among the many non-human denizens of the nonestic ocean.

The women smiled as Betsy and the other former thralls stepped away from the water. Clia was particularly amazed as she stepped over to Betsy. "After what you must have been through under her spell…"

"Mom an' dad used t' tell me that two wrongs don't make a right." Betsy explained. "Serves 'em all right, though, what y' did to 'em, an' it's enough that they get t' start a new life. Bett'r than their old ones, anyway."

Clia smiled wider upon hearing this. "I envy your parents for having raised you so well, Betsy."

One of the former thralls spoke out now. "What about the soldiers on the other island?"

Clia angled her head to respond to the curious former thrall. "As they are similarly unwilling to change their ways, they too are being dealt with."

"Not that I care very much, but…I'm still curious." Betsy remarked. "Why? I mean…why now? Couldn't you have done this t' them _b'fore_ they…"

Clia had to giggle at this before she interjected. "We may be mermaids, dear, but we're not exactly omnipotent. It wasn't until Chloe came to my mother, Queen Aquareine, that we were alerted to the invasion of Pingaree. Their people are friends of ours, particularly King Kitticut. When we began eavesdropping on them through my mother's magic, we found out that they were going to wage war upon us. That was when my mother, and King Anko, agreed to deal with them all as we have."

"I know King Kitticut!" Betsy noted. "We have him aboard th' _Betsy Bobbin_! It's my flyin' boat! It should still be out there, on th' seas."

Clia's eyes widened in concern at this. "Then I should hope they were not caught up in the great storm King Anko created through his own magic. It was his way of dealing with the warboats that were on the surface…but you say it was a _flying_ boat?"

"Mm-hmm! An' I would think Cap'n Fyt'r's smart enough t' bring th' ship out of th' wat'rs b'fore anyone got hurt!" Betsy assured.

"We _did_ see a vessel in the skies, Princess, when we went up to confirm that the boats had been destroyed." One of the women then noted.

Clia placed a hand gently on Betsy's shoulder. "Then you have our gratitude for saving his life, young Betsy. However…there is a rule our King has invoked many times whenever a boon has been granted. Those to whom the boon has been given must now fall under our king's service, obeying his commands. I would think that you would be doing him a service by seeing to King Kitticut's safe return to Pingaree, if he is not there already."

"I could do that." Betsy responded. "If I could get back to th' ship, but…well, I think I'd have t' swim pretty far."

"Perhaps you could use one of the anchored boats here." Clia gestured to the nearby docks. "Maybe some of these former servants here can help you sail it."

One of the former thralls spoke out. "I'll help you there, Betsy! I'm a fair sailor."

"I've been aboard fishing boats too, Betsy." Another former thrall, this one female, added. "I'll certainly help you out."

"I'll help, too." Another more well-built man, himself one of the former thralls, offered. "I…well…I was one of the Coregos soldiers, but…I had always known that what the Queen was doing in the invasion of Pingaree was wrong. I tried speaking out about it, but…well, you might imagine how far _that_ got me, but…now that I'm not a thrall anymore, I'd like to make amends for what my people had done."

The voice of a young man now spoke out loudly. "Can we join you too?"

All eyes turned to a trio that were being escorted by another blond woman, this one with a scaly green skirt. The young man turned out to be a small, gray-skinned and pear-shaped boy with a head of wisped white hair and a bulbous nose. To the boy's left was a large, white-haired human man wearing a soiled red outfit. To his right was a goat with an oddly expressive face.

"I found them eavesdropping on our work, your highness." The green-skirted woman explained, responding to Clia's curious expression.

"We mean you no harm, I assure you!" The large man quickly assured. "I am King Rinkitink, friend to the people of Pingaree. This young boy here, despite his appearance, is Prince Inga of Pingaree, and the goat is my companion, Bilbil."

Clia frowned in her confusion. "You have a nome for a prince?"

Inga frowned in response, his gray hands going to his waist. "You have something against nomes?"

"No, no. It's just…well, a bit odd, but…so be it." Clia replied. She then turned back to Betsy. "Looks like you've got yourself a crew."

"But Clia…" Betsy looked a little concerned now. "…what if we can't find King Kitticut?"

Clia shrugged. "Then you may need to join us beneath the waves, as one of us. Ultimately, that is for King Anko to decide."

Betsy shrugged at this, smiling a bit. "That wouldn't be so bad, bein' a mermaid…but we'll find King Kitticut anyway an' get him back home. Don't you worry none."

Clia smiled, remembering the adventure she shared not too long ago with another little girl, and the peg-legged old sea captain that was her friend. "All my hopes that you find him, Betsy. Please be careful out there."

The mermaid women escorted Betsy and her newly-formed crew to one of the warboats. The former thralls with knowledge of sea travel helped Betsy to provide her crew with the stations and duties necessary to be able to sail the boat.

Their attentions were redirected, however, to the shores as they heard a commotion. Apparently, five women were laying their enchantments upon a particular warrior that they had missed.

Betsy recognized this warrior as Captain Buzzub. Apparently, the mermaids found it difficult to bring under their spell, but he eventually eased his behavior to a point where he fell silent, and lapsed into a daze. When his feet touched the waters, they saw Buzzub's own body mutate and conform to a most ironic and benevolent form of sea creature.

A _dolphin!_

Shaking her head over Buzzub's situation, Betsy…who was naturally ordained the ship's commander…turned to her new crew and gave the order to get the boat underway, and the dolphin that had once been Buzzub chose to dash over beneath the waves and playfully dive in and out of the waters in front of the ship's bow as it cleared the docks.

As they distanced themselves from the island, the smiling mermaids waving their goodbyes as they left, Betsy finally heard the voice of Oscar Diggs in her head, and she beamed proudly upon acknowledging his words. A part of her wanted to question the old man over his unexpected absence, but she was sure there would be a logical explanation for this, so she let that matter wait. She was quite overwhelmingly relieved, anyway, to be her old self again.

 _Well done, Queen of Diamonds!_ Oscar's disembodied, excited voice had remarked happily. _Well done indeed!_

* * *

Trot realized she was taking a terrible risk for disobeying the request Brocius had made to her…to remain at HQ until the return of the diversionary group…but the monkey girl simply could not remain in one place. She wanted very much to help out in some way. Although Brocius had also tasked her with watching the apprentices they had captured, they were already under the watchful eyes of the Lion and the unicorn.

Not so much for the fact that her being found and caught by the witches would be a considerably catastrophic loss, considering what was in her belly, but for the obvious logic that she also needed to avoid being sighted by her own friends, Trot made a conscious effort, by virtue of Koup's training, to keep from being spotted by them.

She chose to climb to the highest elevation that she could manage as she watched Dorothy make her way into the eight-sided house. Trot figured that she might drop down and provide a distraction of her own if the canine girl was having problems, but it was difficult to figure out what was going on once Dorothy found a way to penetrate Blinkie's haven. Trot was tempted to climb down and eavesdrop, but the action that erupted outside of the eight-sided domain made it clear that she needed to stay put, and remain unnoticed.

She eventually saw Dorothy escape through the crack she used to get into the house, and she also saw Princess Gloria take off after her. However, her involvement in the chase, as Trot observed it, was suddenly cut short by the intervention of the old man called Pon, who had pulled her away.

Brocius and Brawn looked quite terrifying as they attacked the witches, although she knew the effort was meant to neutralize and subdue the spellcasters as quickly as possible. In between the disciplined skills of the gorilla Trot had grown to admire and the more rough-and-tumble approach Brawn took in rendering his foes unconscious(mostly through his frequently-used bear hugs), the other witches were left lying unconscious as Brocius and Brawn hurried over to the action beyond the eight-sided domain.

But how long would the witches remain unconscious, Trot wondered? While the idea was to keep Dorothy safe as she attempted to steal whatever spellbooks she could find, it was entirely possible that any one of the witches would make an unexpectedly swift recovery. The uneasy silence in the once-active area made that possibility all the more evident to her.

And so, Trot quite carefully made her way down the high tree she had chosen to occupy during the battles below. She had scanned her surroundings as she descended, and then dropped harmlessly to the ground when she was low enough.

Using the crack Dorothy had used, Trot went inside the eight-sided haven to examine its interiors. Some of it was familiar to her, having visited the place once before, back when she was a flesh-and-blood human girl.

It was then that a thought occurred to her. A quite sly and devious means of assuring that the witches would no longer be a danger to anyone regardless of whether or not they were conscious.

Oh yes, she thought. That would be poetic justice, considering what they did to her.

Trot was relievedly unopposed when she found what she needed to be able to neutralize the fallen witches, and collected all of them before stepping away to find the unconscious bodies of those wicked women.

Once Trot was done, the simian girl curiously went back inside the home, and grabbed a large sack within the home as she sought out any bookcases which she imagined might bear spellbooks.

Although the burden of all those books was a bit difficult to bear, she was at least able to move back towards HQ when she was finished loading the sack.

As she moved, she heard her name being called out loudly by a familiar voice. She eventually saw Brocius call her name out again before he finally spotted her, and moved quickly over to the monkey girl.

Trot expected him to be very angry, but he was instead confused as Dorothy and Brawn hurried over to join them.

Tired out from moving with her burden, she dropped the sack in front of the gorilla. "That…should be all of them."

It was then that Brocius frowned, placing his padded hands on his broad, furry waist. "I gave you strict orders to stay at HQ, Trot. You could have cost us the battle if they had caught you!"

Trot lowered her head, sullen over having made Brocius upset. "I'm sorry…I…I couldn't help it. I _really_ wanted to help you and the others out there."

Dorothy had a more curious expression. "Where were you?"

"High up in the trees." Trot answered. "No one saw me. I was _really_ high up there."

Brocius nodded. "Good. Smart move…but you still could have endangered our mission."

"Now wait a minute, Brocius. Don't you think Trot should be commended over her act of courage? Isn't that what the Legion is all about?" Dorothy remarked. "If neither the witches, nor any of us, had seen her, then there was no harm done, was there?"

Brocius thought on this, and then nodded in agreement. "Agreed."

"Besides…" Trot added. "…something had to be done with those witches you knocked out, so I, ummm…"

Dorothy's eyes widened, however, when she spotted a single figure crawling towards them…a very confused look in her unnatural-looking eyes…as Trot spoke.

"Hey, boss!" Brawn was looking in another direction, as he, too, spotted someone on the ground, moving towards them. "Dose witches is _crawlin'!_ "

Three of them came into view. The very same witches Brawn and Brocius had rendered unconscious were now acting quite strangely, not saying a single word as they wandered in a seemingly aimless fashion.

When Dorothy spotted what had been placed around their necks, she found out why.

They were beast collars. Similar to what had once been wrapped around Dorothy's neck. Although the witches themselves remained human, their minds were locked in whatever primitive behaviors the collars gave them. Sima was loping around like a monkey, scratching her head curiously. The witch on all fours was Marge, sniffing about as if she were a dog, and Cheralyn was similarly crawling about, looking warily at Marge and uttering low, wary feline moans. Their eyes also provided an indication as to what manner of animal behavior the victims were enchanted into emulating. Marge's eyes were as canine as Dorothy's had been, Sima had the eyes of a monkey, and Cheralyn's pupils were visibly slitted.

As the collars had been designed to induce a generally harmless nature, in addition to the animal behaviors, the witches showed no aggression whatsoever.

Dorothy turned to Trot, still wide-eyed in her surprise. "Did you put those collars on…"

"All of them? I sure did." Trot confirmed, nodding her head. "I couldn't find Blinkie, though. I don't know where she went."

"Last we saw her, she sent Rouse over to fight Bo." Brocius remarked as he took a closer look at Sima, who was giving the gorilla a cautious sniff as he came close. "But this does significantly reduce the magnitude of our witch problem quite poetically."

"You can say that again!" Dorothy ebulliently remarked, turning to Trot as the canine girl's tail wagged happily behind her. "That was a _great_ idea, Trot! Serves those witches right for trying to make beasts of you and me! _Rruff!_ "

Trot flashed a toothy, simian grin in response, and let out a monkey's giggle as Dorothy rubbed appreciatively at the monkey girl's soft brown fur with her own padded canine hand.

Stepping away from the activities at the cottage HQ, the Lion now quite curiously stepped over to see what was happening with his friends. His eyes immediately went to the collared witches, frowning in visible confusion.

The leonine monarch angled his head to Dorothy, gesturing towards Marge as she continued sniffing around in her own canine curiosity.

"Oh, don't look at me. That was _Trot's_ doing!" She gestured to the monkey, who flashed another grin. "Now, all we need to do is find Blinkie."

The Lion nodded. "Did ya get one a' dose books, Dorothy?"

"Oh yes! I sure did!" She excitedly hurried over to where she had dropped the book to retrieve it, and then handed it over to the lion as her tail wagged wildly behind her. "I was only able to get one, though…but Trot got the rest before she came back here!"

Trot gestured to the sack full of books as Dorothy mentioned the simian girl's second accomplishment.

The Lion stepped over to Trot slowly, his furry hands on his hips. He spoke somewhat accusingly. "Even though Brocius told ya ta stay put?"

Dorothy now frowned. "Oh, now _wait_ a min…"

The Lion quickly raised a paw in restraint, and Dorothy stopped herself. Her furry canine ears lowered a little.

Trot sighed, now looking a bit crestfallen as the Commander-In-Chief of the Legion of Courage stood before her. "I'm sorry…I…I really wanted to help. I couldn't help it."

"Uh-huh. You couldn't help it." The Lion nodded as he spoke, turning his head briefly to Dorothy.

He then gave the concerned canine girl a quick, disarming wink before redirecting his feline eyes back to Trot, his expression dead serious. "It's undissy-plinn'd an' poten-chously cata-sta-rophic moves like dis dat make one ting a-bunderantly clear, little missy."

Trot tilted her head to the side curiously. Dorothy's ears began to raise up.

"Dat you are just as fit ta be a full member of da Legion as Dorothy is." The Lion added, smiling. "Ya gots plenty a' courage, kid. Ya knew da risks, but ya stayed outta sight, an' even showed some brain power dere considerin' how dem witches turned out."

Brocius placed a padded hand on Trot's shoulder, smiling. "Koup's gonna hear about this when he's done getting all those statues out. No doubt he's gonna be real proud of you."

"But…what about _you?_ " Trot asked, now looking a little concerned. "Are you proud of me, Brocius?"

The broad-bodied, well-built gorilla picked up Trot in response. "That's a definite understatement, Trot. Although I'm still a little hurt by your disobedience, that only served to test your commitment to the courage that defines our group in the end."

Smiling happily, Trot wrapped her furry arms around the gorilla's neck, squeezing tight in her loving embrace. At first, Brocius looked surprised, but he returned the hug in the next moment, embracing the monkey gently.

Dorothy and the Lion smiled, watching this tender moment, before the canine girl turned to the Lion. "Speaking of brains…"

"Straw-head's been playin' dippa-mat ta dose junior witches." The Lion replied. "Tilda's been helpin' 'im out, but a couple of 'em are bein' a little stubborn."

"Well…if what I overheard is any indication, those senior witches don't think very highly of those apprentices." Dorothy remarked, remembering their dismissive tones.

"Ya don't say!" The Lion's expression brightened a bit at this. "Dat might play in our favor, if dose junior witches is ambishonous."

Brawn looked curiously to Brocius. "'Ambishonous?'"

Brocius had to chuckle, still holding Trot as he replied. "Our king's version of the word 'ambition'. He basically means that if the apprentices are really serious about becoming powerful witches, whatever Dorothy overheard might help us to convince them to help us set things right."

"They didn't sound like they cared much for those apprentices at all." Dorothy assured. "They called them 'mewling little brats'. They even said they'd _kill_ them. If that's not complete deceit, I don't know _what_ is!"

 _What does it mean, when one makes a pleasant scene,  
_ _only to show contempt and scheme behind your back?  
_ _When you know they're spinning lies, let your conscience advise  
_ _that you call them on the trust that they lack!_

 _Said the witch, "Stick with me, and I'll teach you, naturally  
_ _how to be just as powerful as I!"  
_ _But it's really just a ploy! Alas, you're just a toy!  
_ _And you're left feeling worthless, and you cry!_

 _Promises, broken in the end!  
_ _Not a care in the world that they offend!  
_ _When they win, and you wind up obsolete?  
_ _That's…com-plete…de-ceit!_

Trot nodded as Dorothy lyrically made her point, and she slipped down from the grasp of her gorilla friend to add her own thoughts, moving about as she did.

 _I came all this way! Rowed a boat beyond the bay!  
_ _Just to find a good man who sailed the seas!  
_ _Down a whirlpool I went, but to here, I was sent,  
_ _by something that left me among some trees!_

 _Then a lady came along, and I thought she'd keep me strong  
_ _in my belief that I'd find Cap'n Bill!  
_ _But then I felt really sick…it was all a nasty trick,  
_ _and then they turned me into THIS against my will!_

 _Promises, broken in the end!  
_ _Not a care in the world that they offend!  
_ _When they win, and you wind up obsolete?  
_ _That's…com-plete…de-ceit!_

The Lion nodded, offering his own tidbit of wisdom to the ongoing exchange of lyrics.

 _When dey bring ya ta first base, only ta slap ya in da face…  
_ _dat's…com-plete…de-ceit!_

Surprisingly, Brawn offered his own tidbit…

 _When dey'll follow ya ev'rywhere, but dey really don't care…  
_ _dat's…com-plete…de-ceit!_

…after which Brocius then donated…

 _If they promised you power, why did they drop you from the tower?  
_ _That's…com-plete…de-ceit!_

…and then, Dorothy summed it all up thusly...

 _So stay clear of a fake friend! Karma will get them in the end!  
_ _It's the price…they pay…  
_ _to spread…dismay…  
_ _through…com-plete…de-ceit!  
_ _RRUFF!_

The smiling Lion nodded in complete agreement, rubbing Dorothy's head of hair in appreciation. Inescapably enthralled by the petting, she couldn't help but lean into his furry body as he did, her tail rapidly wagging behind her. "Ya know…you're just as good a teacher as a dog den ya were as a munchkin, kiddo."

Trot glanced at Sima, who was repeatedly failing to climb a tree. "So what do we do about these witches?"

Brocius looked to the Lion. "Should Brawn and I round them all up? If Blinkie is still at large, she might want to come back and get those collars off."

The Lion nodded in agreement, gesturing to a cottage that was in front of where they had established their HQ. "Dat one has a cellar. We can put 'em down dere, an' have Biff guard 'em."

After Brawn and Brocius led Sima, Marge, and Cheralyn down into the indicated cottage cellar, they were joined by a partially-recovered Bo as they moved back out towards the eight-sided haven to find Ness and Pippa.

Bo found Ness behaving in a manner that reminded the panda of a nervous squirrel, while Brocius found Pippa grunting and snorting in the manner of a pig. They did not resist when Bo, Brawn, and Brocius led them to the cottage. As Biff was still in recovery himself, he had at least enough strength to relocate himself to the cottage where the collared witches had been imprisoned, and once he had settled in, the rhino quietly kept watch.

There was also the matter of what was to be done with Rouse, who had been subdued through Brawn's bear hug following her battle with Bo. Dorothy had ventured a thought to ask Tilda about having her still-unconscious body bound through the cantrip that held the apprentice's fellow neophytes fast in the basement of their HQ.

Heading down into the cellar, Dorothy noted that Tilda was still having a hard time trying to convince her fellow apprentices to aid the Legion. Heated words continued to be exchanged as the canine girl padded into the cellar. The Scarecrow had chosen Florina to represent the apprentices, as there were no plants in the cellar that the apprentice could capably exploit. Her gag removed, it was Florina that continued to argue the pros and cons of betraying their own coven as Dorothy entered.

"Awww, look who it is." Florina mused. "You looking for a doggie biscuit, furball?"

Dorothy obviously ignored the verbal jab as Tilda turned to her. "Yes, Dorothy?"

"There's someone we need to have in magic restraints." The canine girl remarked. "One of our own, who fell under the influence of the witches."

Tilda nodded. "Bring her down here. I'll secure her."

Dorothy then turned to Florina. "You know…I heard your own teachers say they were going to kill you."

Florina's expression turned to one of disgust. "Oh, _stop._ We haven't betrayed _anyone._ If someone is gonna burn for going rogue," She turned her eyes to Tilda. "it's _you._ "

Dorothy then looked over to where the attempt to tunnel beneath Jinxland had been proceeding. There was indeed a tunnel, but there was no light shining through it from the other side.

Both the Scarecrow and Koup also looked visibly crestfallen as they sat near the unfinished tunnel. Dorothy curiously padded over on her digitigrade legs, her ears lowering a little.

"Scarecrow…?" Dorothy quietly remarked.

The straw-stuffed advisor raised his head up to look upon the canine girl with a sullen expression. "It won't work. The barrier is a perfect sphere. We couldn't get through it."

Dorothy gasped, her furry ears lowering more, in her distress. "Y…you mean…?"

"Sorry, Doro-tee." Koup remarked in his own less-than-spirited reply. "We all trapp'd." He then angrily gestured to the captured apprentices. "An' DEY won't 'elp!"

The dog girl's eyes went to the frowning neophytes…

…and her look of despair changed. Her human eyes now flared with fury.

The Scarecrow and Koup noticed this. They each prepared to burst over and restrain Dorothy, believing that she was about to lunge...

…but she instead went back upstairs, and raced over to grab the sack full of books, adding the book she had found to the pile. It was considerably heavy, but Dorothy was determined to bring them downstairs to the HQ cellar.

All of the apprentices looked visibly surprised, seeing all the spellbooks that they had seen, once or twice, during their many lessons in witchcraft. Their eyes widened considerably.

Once the books were on the cellar floor, however, Dorothy angrily went over to Florina and roughly grabbed her by the collar of her robes. She then pulled her out of her seat and slammed her against the hard stone walls of the cellar.

"Now you listen to me." Dorothy felt a bestial fury run through her as she spoke. "If you think your teachers are gonna come for you, you're in for a _big_ surprise! We defeated _all_ of them! _Every one of them!_ We used _your collars_ , and we _still_ have more left to use!"

"Oh, I'm sure _that's_ gonna get you somewhere with us." Florina defiantly shot back. "Let me guess. You want us to help you out by using those books, right? No chance."

Dorothy's fur was bristling with rage now as she growled. "You _have to help us!_ They really _did_ say they were going to kill you! They _already_ think you betrayed them!"

" _FORGET IT!_ " Florina growled back.

The canine girl's ears lowered angrily, and Dorothy flashed her teeth now as she let out a loud, bestial growl, tightening her grip on Florina's robes as she snarled furiously in the adolescent girl's face. Such was the dog girl's building sense of rage that even Tilda felt compelled to distance herself from the two.

"Dorothy! _Heel!_ "

Her fluffy ears went straight up once she heard the Lion speak that single word, and her anger immediately began to fade. The snarling rage in her furry face became noticeably docile, and after releasing Florina, she slowly padded over to the leonine monarch, kneeling submissively next to him.

The Lion, the Scarecrow, and Koup were all visibly surprised by this reaction. They didn't expect Dorothy to disengage so quickly and compliantly. The Scarecrow wondered if there was more to the command the Lion had uttered.

Florina shook her head amusedly. "How much more pathetic can that stupid dog _g…?_ "

With a gesture and a whispered word, Tilda had temporarily applied the effect of another cantrip upon the stubborn neophyte witch.

A cantrip called _Silence._

Dorothy rose to the padded paws that were once her human feet, reacting as if she had come out of a daze, as Tilda stepped over to the spellbooks. "I need to be careful with these." Tilda warned. "I hope I can find something. I'll need a little time."

"Dat depends on how much time Blinkie's gonna give us, Til." The Lion warily responded, his arm around Dorothy's furry torso.

Florina tried protesting further, but no sound emerged from her lips. Her voice, for the moment, was completely gone.

The Lion and the Scarecrow guided the canine girl back upstairs, and she shook her head as if coming out of a daze. They looked at her sympathetically as she hung her head down and let out a long, distressed sigh.

"Honestly, Dorothy…" The Lion began. "…I had no idea dat woid would have dat kind of an effect on ya!"

"That wicked ol' witch, Blinkie, must have conditioned you to respond to that word the way you did." The Scarecrow reasoned. "I know you might not want to hear this, but…"

"Don't you _dare_ suggest that, Scarecrow." Dorothy's head snapped up, and fixed a surprisingly angry look to her straw-stuffed friend. "I am _not_ gonna stay behind while you all go after Blinkie! I don't care if she uses that word on me or not!"

"Don't go dere, straw-head." The Lion added warily. "Remember…she's one of _us_ now. A member of da Legion. An' if da Legion's goin' afta Blinkie, dat means Dorothy's in da fight as well."

The Scarecrow still looked worried as she placed an arm around Dorothy's furry shoulders. "I just don't want things to get worse for you is all. I mean, it's…kind of _my_ fault this happened to you. I don't want to lose you to that witch again."

"You won't." Dorothy shook her head in emphasis. "Things are different now. Blinkie doesn't have her witches to help her anymore. Even if only one of her apprentices could be convinced to help us. I-I think if we play it smart, we can take her."

"Let's just hope she isn't powerful enough on her own to take us all out." The Scarecrow warily noted.

"If she was, why would she need all a' dose udda witches, brainy?" The Lion responded.

The Scarecrow shrugged. "Maybe she needed them for witchcraft rituals?"

Dorothy raised a furry fist in emphasis of her words, looking to the Lion. "When she finds herself faced with the kind of talent the Legion of Courage is gonna bring down on her, Blinkie is gonna _wish_ she could use a ritual enchantment to stop us! _Rruff!_ "

"Took da woids right outta my mouth, kiddo." The smiling leonine monarch rubbed at the back of Dorothy's neck, and she leaned into him, smiling in approval. Her tail wagged happily behind her.

Although the Scarecrow was smiling as well, he had to remind himself that Dorothy's behavior was likely being influenced by what she had become through Blinkie's wicked magic. Seeing the canine girl's reactions to being petted by the Lion reminded the Scarecrow of his own wonderful times with Dorothy when she was a patchwork girl.

The straw-stuffed advisor also remembered that the Kansas girl's patchwork days were also the result of a witch's wicked magic, and he began to wonder if Mombi and Blinkie had any association with the witch-sisters who terrorized Munchkinland and the Winkie Country.

"Scarecrow! This is no time to be idle!" Dorothy firmly remarked, stepping over to her startled, straw-stuffed friend. "We've got to put our best brains forward, and spread our Legion all over Jinxland to find Blinkie! She's the only witch we have yet to confront!"

The Scarecrow nodded. "Maybe we should all split up into teams of two. Everyone other than Ali and Biff. Those witches will still need to be watched, after all."

The Lion nodded. "Good thinkin', straw-head." He then turned to Dorothy. "So, whaddya think, kid? Who goes wit' who?"

The canine girl gave the inquiry a bit of thought, weighing out all she knew about her friends. The Lion and the Scarecrow continued to follow her every padded step as she worked it all out in her head.

Dorothy was still thinking on the possibilities as she turned her furry head to the Lion. "I thiiiiink…you should have Bo join you, your majesty. Trot should be with Koup, aaaaand…well, Brawn and Brocius make for a pretty good team, don't they?"

The Lion shrugged, smiling. "Dey've done it before, kid."

The Scarecrow couldn't help but smile as he looked to the furry Kansas girl. "Looks like I'm with you, then."

Dorothy nodded. "So I can keep you safe. Just think of me as your guard dog, Scarecrow."

"As long as I don't have to put you on a leash." The straw-stuffed advisor winked in emphasis of the implied mirth.

"Say, wait a minute…" The Lion now began to look around curiously. "…we seem ta be missin' someone."

"Yeah, I got that feeling too." Dorothy wondered aloud.

The Scarecrow also began to think on this. "We just have to think on who we had sent out to help Dorothy with that distrac…"

The name hit the trio at the same time, and they turned to each other to shout his name aloud in their mutual discovery.

"PON!"

* * *

The old man who was once a very young boy stared down at the unconscious form of the Princess Gloria, who he was forced to subdue for all the struggling and the noises she was making. He had expected, prior to grabbing her, to feel ice cold skin when he grabbed her.

But despite the unnatural paleness of the young girl's skin, and the visible blue veins, Gloria's skin was warm to the touch.

Pon took Gloria far from where the fights had been happening. He was near the edge of the gorge by the time he decided to stop and lay the enchanted princess carefully upon a patch of soft grass. He had then stepped away from her, sitting upon a large rock that was in front of the area where she was placed.

The old man never once took his eyes off her.

His thoughts, however, were of the past. About how they had first met, which was a moment he frequently revisited. Subsequent moments in which she visited him during his gardening chores also proved memorable. Their conversations were always lively, insightful, and even a bit mischievous.

Pon had always wanted to ask her one question, though. A question that could be summed up in all of one word.

 _Why?_

Why would a princess, born into a royal life, want to be around a lowly gardener's boy? Practically a peasant? He had never summoned up the nerve to ask. He just wanted to maintain the bonds of friendship that they had shared.

Pon had seen the old man called Googly-Goo on a few occasions, although he also noted the growing distaste of the princess whenever he tried to court her. Gloria had explained the situation…that Krewl wanted to have her marry the wealthy old man…but she also mentioned that Pon would not have to worry about Googly-Goo causing the gardener's boy any trouble, as she had warned him of the consequences of doing so.

It never occurred to Pon that Googly-Goo would pay Blinkie and her witches to kidnap and exchange the gardener's boy's youth with the wealthy rotter's frail and weak old age outside of Gloria's notice.

The frail old man squinted his eyes shut upon recollecting that terrible moment when the witches had cast their spell. He wanted to put the sensations of his vibrant youth being drained out of him out of his mind, but the appearance of his own pale and wrinkled body would always remind him.

He wanted to be able to see Gloria's natural beauty restore itself when she began to regain consciousness, but her unnaturally malevolent appearance remained.

When her eyes finally fell upon the old man, she sighed in irritation, and regarded him with an expression of disdain.

"Oh." She huffed. "It's _you_."

Pon lowered his head shamefully. "I…I'm sorry…if I h-hurt you…"

"URRH! Sorry this, sorry that…you're so _pathetic!_ " She growled back. "What, did you think you were _rescuing_ me or something?"

He lifted his head back up. "Gloria, please…y-you've got to fight thi…"

" _SHUT UP!_ " The princess angrily shot back. "If it wasn't for that…that stupid _rock_ of yours…why can't you just give up all that ridiculous 'love' crap and…and go away? Don't you _get_ it, Pon? I _don't love you!_ I don't love _anyone!_ I don't even love _myself!_ Just…just go away and leave me alone!"

Pon's eyes began to water up now. "You're not yourself. I…I…"

"'You…you…'" Gloria cruelly mocked his despairing tone of voice. "…you need to give it up, Pon! Give _me_ up, because you'll never get me! _Never!_ You _do_ know what that word means, don't you? Or has your brain begun to rot along with the rest of your body?"

The old man wiped his eyes, still staring in his lament to the bewitched princess.

"Well?" Gloria then irritably remarked. " _Go away!_ "

"Why do…why do _I_ have to go?" Pon quietly replied. "Why don't _you_ go? I…I won't stop you."

Gloria blinked in confusion at this. "Because…because _I'm the princess!_ That's why! I…I…"

Pon began to smile now. He had decided to risk revisiting an old game he had played with Gloria once before. It was all about who was supposed to leave first when it came time for them to temporarily part ways. He didn't expect Gloria to repeat the line she had always used to justify her excuse, but she did. Word for word, in fact.

He hoped this would be the chink that would lead to the breaking of this terrible spell. "And I'm the gardener's boy." He replied, repeating his own typical justification from their past exchanges.

And in the next moment, he finally saw Gloria's expression begin to soften. Not by much, but it was indeed evident.

 _The spell is breaking,_ he thought to himself. _The spell is actually breaking!_

Gloria's expression softened further as she stepped towards him, and Pon slipped off the rock to get back on his feet. The smile was still on his lips.

They were within inches of each other now. She continued to stare into the old man's eyes. "Pon…"

Her next move was too quick for the former young boy to react to. Gloria wrapped one of the dreaded beast collars around the old man's neck and fastened it. Pon's look of shock dissolved to one of confusion as more primitive and instictive thoughts flooded his mind. In the confusion, Gloria searched the old man's pockets until she found the pearl that had given him his super-strength, and slipped it into one of her own pockets as Pon, who now had more canine-looking eyes, lowered to his knees.

A devious smile now played on Gloria's lips as she finished her sentence, rubbing at his head with mocking affection as she spoke. "…you're such a _good_ boy."


	10. X: Tear Down The Wall

**X: Tear Down The Wall**

 **AUTHOR NOTE: This is for any fans of the** ** _Warhammer 40,000_** **wargame franchise from Games Workshop: try not to think of green-skinned, ultraviolent, intergalactic rabble-rousers when we mention "orks" in this chapter! The orks of Oz, created and defined by Baum in** ** _The Scarecrow of Oz_** **, are a completely unrelated species of flying creatures, one of whom we'll be introducing in this very chapter.**

 **And unlike the orks of the Imperium, dey'z** ** _like_** **da humies. ;)**

* * *

Dorothy, the Lion, and the Scarecrow all agreed, since Pon was nowhere in their immediate vicinity, that he should be added to that which the teams of two should be searching for, in addition to Blinkie. With the still-recovering Biff keeping vigil over the collared witches, and Ali and Tilda keeping watch on the stubborn young apprentices, the group set out to begin their search mission.

* * *

 **BO AND THE LION**

The leonine monarch of the Quadling Country's beasts looked a little sullen as he set out with the large, black and white-furred discipline officer of his Legion of Courage to begin their sweep, looking through the uninhabited cottages of their chosen search area.

Although she maintained her attentiveness to the search effort, Bo did indeed notice her king's apparent melancholy as they looked around the second of the cottages they chose to search. "Dare I ask if there is anything on your mind, your highness?"

"Ehh, it's nothin', Bo." The lion replied as he looked around the cottage's living room area, seeing only an embroidered picture of a face that resembled one of the apprentices as an item of possible interest.

But the lion knew Bo too well. She'd maintain her curiosity over what troubled the lion…or anyone else in the Legion, for that matter…until she got an answer. Indeed, there _was_ something on his mind, and he knew Bo would eventually get it out of him.

Bo, in fact, began a mental count from five, slightly smiling as she continued her searching. After one, right on cue, the lion spoke again.

"Da thing is, Bo…I kinda thought Dorothy would want ta come wit _me._ " The lion explained. "I mean…dis is da very same girlie dat helped me find my courage, after all."

"Mm-hmm…so I guess the fact that she's basically an animal now has nothing to do with it?" Bo observed aloud, continuing her searching as she spoke.

The lion frowned, angling his head to the panda. "Oh, come on…Dorothy's under a spell is all. Once we've freed Glinda, she'll change 'er back in less den a second!"

"Oh, no doubt." Bo continued to speak as she moved around, continuing her investigation of the cottage. "So it really _doesn't_ matter who she goes with, then? Otherwise, why bring the concern up to begin with? Dorothy chose to go with the Scarecrow. Case closed."

The lion couldn't help but heave a sigh over Bo's words. "Alright, alright. I admit it. I'm…I'm a little _jealous_. I mean…Dorothy's such a great kid, Bo. Really sweet. Although I really did feel bad when I found out what happened ta her, it just occurred ta me dat, for da time bein', she's one of _us_ now. An _animal_. It really felt good ta be able ta teach her things like instinct an' stuff…an' she's got real good leada-ship pa-tenshul, don'cha think?"

"So it's more like a teacher-and-student thing." Bo surmised as she continued looking around, going into another room.

"Yeah, dat's…" The lion had drifted to another room, and had spotted a clear oddity in the presence of a quaking bulge beneath the covers of a woman's bedroom. It was definitely human-shaped, and resting on one side. "…dat's more like it. Uh…Bo? Could ya join me in here for a sec?"

Bo spoke as she moved to rejoin her commander-in-chief. "Did you find something?"

The lion silently indicated the bulge within the covers.

Bo frowned thoughtfully as she acknowledged the bulge. "A survivor, maybe?" She wondered aloud. "Someone who was somehow immune to the stone spell?"

The bulge responded to this before the lion could answer. "Yes! Yes!" the funny-sounding voice replied, in a tone that sounded more like a man pretending to be a woman, and not doing a very good job of it. "Please! Go and get those nasty witches!"

Bo and the lion looked to each other incredulously, and then turned their heads back towards the quivering bulge. The furry commander-in-chief then stepped over to one side of the bed and grabbed at its sheets. "We're gonna need ta ask yas a few questions first, ' _madam_ '!"

The lion then slipped the sheets off the bed in one big pull, completely exposing the familiar-looking young man that was hiding beneath them. A young man they had heard was once a much older man, before he exchanged his frail old age with an innocent gardener's boy's more vibrant youth.

The lion's eyes lit up in recognition. "Well, well, well! An' I was jus' gettin' hungry, too!"

With a rather genuine-sounding girlyman shriek, Goog L'Goo burst out of the bed in hopes of dashing for the door, but the amazing pole-fighting skills of the Legion of Courage's discipline officer easily sent the sneaky miscreant to the ground. Grabbing the back of his waistcoat, Bo threw him back onto the bed. The lion grabbed the back of Goog's neck with one paw and pulled the clearly frightened young man up to a sitting position. His eyes boggled with terror as he angled them to the lion, who now looked at him with an expression he surmised to be hunger.

The lion, however, was loving every minute of the deception as he stared upon Goog. "Rrrr… _ruff!_ " He uttered, right in the human man's face, causing his terrified victim to react with a yelp. The grinning leonine monarch angled his head to Bo, speaking with mock-anxiousness. "So which part a' his body should I _rrrr_ rrip off first?"

She shrugged. Bo couldn't help but play along as well. "King's discretion, your highness…" She then fixed a hungry gaze on Goog. "…but I call dibs on the _bones._ "

"Y-yy…you can't eat me!" Goog stammered, his voice pathetically breaking in his fright. "You _need_ me! I…I can _help_ you!"

Bo smirked. She practically sang the words. "He's _ly_ -iiing."

"Naturally!" The lion maintained his grip on the back of Goog's neck as he continued to sweat and shake with terror. "Wow…dis one's as jittery as a sheep. I almos' feel sorry for ya, kiddo…I'd spares ya if I wasn't hungry for a _lambchop!_ "

" _Wait! Wait!_ " Goog howled as the lion lowered to a knee, licking around his leonine mouth as it neared one of the terrified human's legs. " _Pleeease_ wait!"

Bo spoke right in Goog's face with a menacing grin. "Sorry, kid. Our king never plays with his food."

At this, the lion clamped his jaws down on Goog's upper thigh, putting just enough pressure on the leg for the bite to hurt, without drawing much blood. Predictably, Goog reared his head back and hollered in apparent agony, his eyes boggling.

"Just what do you think gives you the right to steal a young boy's youth?" Bo scolded, frowning angrily.

" _I had to!_ " Goog screamed, practically blubbering through his words. "I _wanted_ that girl! I promised King Krewl _all my riches_ if he could give Princess Gloria to me, but that stubborn little brat kept _refusing_ me! I was gonna do anything… _anything_ …to get that girl to marry me!"

"Couldn't take 'no' for an answer, eh?" Bo shook her head. "Pathetic. I can't help but wonder how a jerk like you came to be wealthy to begin with."

The lion suddenly brought his head back up, looking disgusted. "What am I _doing?_ I keep fah-gettin' ta rip away da _clothes_ first!" As his bite had dug through the cloth, he was able to tear away enough of the cloth on his upper thigh to allow the lion to clamp his jaws back down, this time on exposed flesh.

As the lion slowly brought his jaws back down on the exposed area, the wildly-perspiring Goog, his eyes squinted shut in expectation of the pain to come, let out another curious holler. "NN-NN _NNOOOOOOOOOMMES!_ "

The lion stopped, just as his canines were about to touch the terrified man's flesh. He then looked up, curiously, to Goog.

His leonine face then moved until it was a few inches from Goog's face. "Did you say 'nomes'?"

Bo nodded, also curious. "That's what it sounded like, my king."

The lion's curious expression melted to a frown as Goog fearfully opened his eyes. " _'Splain_ , Googly."

Goog's tone remained pathetic. " _Promise me you won't eat me!_ "

" _Only if it's da_ _truth_ _ya tells me._ " The lion angrily countered.

"Okay! Okay! Okayokayokayokayokay, yesyesyesyesyes…" Goog wiped away a bit of his sweat from his face as he began. "…M-Moogle-loog! Moogle-loog, he…hhheee was banished from the land of Mo…I'm his son! W-We went to the land of Ev and my father made a bargain with the Nome King!" He spoke at a rapid-fire pace now. "He promised to pay a price in live slaves within thirty days in exchange for precious stones worth a kingly sum! Moogle-loog was a family friend of King Evoldo…he told Evoldo of the bargain and Evoldo offered his _own family_ so my father could fulfill the debt!"

Both Bo and the lion found the confession quite horrifying. The lion was the first to speak a moment after Goog went silent. " _Family?_ "

"Just what kind of a family are we talking about here, Goog?" Bo asked, still aghast over what she had heard.

"His wife, the…the Queen, his…his young heir…" Goog swallowed hard, still shaking terribly. "…and…and his nine ch-children."

" _CHILDREN?_ " Bo's eyes boggled at this.

The lion couldn't contain his anger any longer. He cut loose with a very loud, bestial roar which could only come from the natural king of the beasts, and he directed every octave of it right in Goog's screaming face.

The lion snarled openly as he spoke right into Goog's face, which had a near-catatonic expression on it at this point. "And you have the _nerve_ to let your father _get away with this?_ 'Take the money and run', is _that it?_ "

Although Bo was just as disgusted over this admission, there was one question she was curious enough to ask. "And just what happened to your father, hmm? What happened to this…this 'Moogy-moog'?"

But Goog was fading now, and on the verge of passing out from the stress. He spoke slowly. "O-Orn…orna-m-mmment…b-black….orrrnammm…"

Goog's body went limp as he lapsed into unconsciousness.

The lion still had an angry expression on his feline face as he released Goog, and let his upper body drop back down to the bed. Bo looked just as disgusted.

"I think we really _should_ eat him." The angry panda mused.

The lion, however, shook his head. "No. Goog isn't da problem. His _daddy_ is. Dunno what he meant by a black ornament, but I don't think it mattas right now." He then turned to face Bo. "But we _are_ gonna take dis guy wit us, an' keep 'im bound up wit dose apprentice kids. When he comes to, we can grill 'im some more on dat biz wit da nomes. Let's get 'im back ta HQ. Den, we can get back ta searchin'."

Bo nodded in acknowledgement, already lifting Goog's limp body and draping it over her furry shoulder like a sack of rice. "Wouldn't it be great if we could restore Goog's _real_ age before he regains consciousness?"

The smiling lion arched an eyebrow as they made their way out of the cottage. "Sounds like well-deserved poetic justice ta me, big Bo."

* * *

 **TROT AND KOUP**

As Trot was getting hungry, Koup flew his protégé and companion over to a forest area, where he had spotted a tree-like banana plant that grew by a body of water. They had already been engaged in their own search effort, but they had turned up nothing thus far.

Koup was only hungry for one, but Trot devoured _three_ of them.

"Wow…" Koup amusedly observed, as the former girl discarded the banana peel, tossing it into the nearby lake. "…you be _really_ 'ungry, eh?"

Trot shrugged. "I can't help it. These bananas…they're so _good_." She then looked over to the banana plant. "I could go for another."

"I teenk ya 'ave enough now." Koup responded. "Ya beeg een de belly as eet ees."

"Awww, c'mooon." Trot pleaded. "One more?"

Koup stepped over to the hungry monkey girl. "We do a leetle more sear-cheeng first. We find any'teen? We come back an' ya can feell ya belly a leetle more."

Trot displayed a simian pout. "Oh, okay. Fair eno…"

Her eyes had diverted to the nearby lake, and her head tilted curiously as she began to slowly lope over to the edge of the lake. As Koup's back was turned towards the lake, he did not notice until Trot's expression had changed.

When Koup turned his eyes to spot whatever it was that Trot had discovered, his eyes fell upon a weird-looking head, which now had a banana peel for a hat. The head reminded Trot of a parrot, as it had a beak which curved downward at the end, and upwards at the edges. There were no feathers on this bird, however, save for a crest of scarlet plumes on top of the creature's head, beneath the banana peel.

Its eyes lingered on Trot for a moment. When the creature spoke, it was in a high-pitched shrill of a voice. "Do you monkeys mind? I'm _drinking_ here."

"I an' I not a monkey, brah." Koup replied, spreading his wings to the sides. "I be a baboon. Me sees-tah 'ere be monkey."

The creature's head tilted to the side curiously, and the banana peel slipped off the feathery plume, dropping into the water. "Why doesn't _she_ have wings, like you?"

Koup shrugged. "She not be weeng'd baboon."

"Then why are you calling her your sister?" The creature then asked.

"Well…I…I'm not really a monkey." Trot remarked. "I'm a little girl. I was changed by a witch's magic. My name's Trot, and the winged baboon is Koup." She indicated her winged friend. "What's your name?"

"Flipper. World explorer." The creature replied. "Well…I was, but…I'm kinda trapped here. There's something keeping me here in this land. Some kind of barrier."

Koup nodded. "I learn dat de 'ard way m'self, mon."

"I…hope you don't mind my asking…" Trot's head tilted to the side curiously. "…but what kind of creature are you?"

"Me? Haven't you ever heard of the Orks?" Flipper replied. "I come from a place called Orkland. My kind doesn't really get around much. Outside of Orkland, that is, but I really wanted to be able to go to places _other_ than my home. I've visited Oz more than once, seeing as how I seem to find something new every time I come back. During my journeys, I decided to take a rest stop and settle to this lake to get a drink. I tried going back up, but…suddenly, the sky wouldn't let me!"

"Eet be mageek, mon." Koup responded. "We steel try ta feegya out 'ow ta break eet."

"So you can fly?" Trot asked, still curious about the nature of this odd-looking beast.

" _All_ Orks can fly." Flipper replied. "I just wish I could fly out of _here_. If I drink any more water, I might get a belly as…as big as _yours!_ " The creature indicated Trot.

Koup shrugged, smiling. "Trot like banana. She monkey, afta all."

Trot sighed, looking down at her gut lamentedly. "I've been fat since the witches made me this way."

"Deedn't stop ya from bein' good monkey, seestah." Koup smiled as she rubbed at Trot's still-human hair. Trot smiled appreciatively in response.

"We still need to figure out how to break…this 'mageek', as you call it." Flipper gazed up as he came out of the water. "This place has become a bit scary as of late. Everyone's gray, hard, and they haven't moved an inch!"

"De weetches deed dees." Koup remarked. "We 'ave some of de weetches at de HQ, but dey not talkeen'. De boss be out dere, somewhere."

"I bet if we search the land by air, as far up as we can go, we should be able to find this boss, don't you think?" Flipper wondered aloud. "Seeing as how your monkey friend has no wings, I'd be happy to carry her."

Trot looked to Koup. "What do you think? I like that idea."

"I an' I agree, Trot, me sesstah." Koup answered. He turned to Flipper. "Looks like we flyeen', mon. Ya make sure ya monkey don' fall."

"She can sit quite securely between the two sets of wings on my back." Flipper assured.

He then positioned himself so that Trot could mount upon the creature's back accordingly. Her hunger for bananas was essentially eclipsed by the excitement of once more being in the air, this time in a manner where she was not being held by Koup's two hands, always worrying that Koup might accidentally drop her.

Although she became curious about one other thing as the creature's tail began to spin like a propeller. "How long can you stay in the air, Flipper?"

"Oh, I can stay up here for days!" the ork replied. "We orks are the Kings of the Air, after all!"

Trot held carefully to the ork as he ascended to the skies, Koup flying alongside him. Within moments, they were as high up in the skies over Jinxland as the barrier high above would allow them.

All they saw as they coasted around, however, were the occasional statues in the streets of shocked, innocent jinxlanders frozen where they stood, these being statues that the Legion could not move in their collection of those afflicted by the Medusa Stone.

Trot then noticed a particularly large landmark which was quite grand in its stature. "Wow! That must have been the home of the King and Queen!"

"Do you think this boss witch of yours might be there?" Flipper asked.

"Wanta go een an' find out?" Koup asked. "Mebbe we find de way ta break de barria."

"If the witch is in there, she might hit you with a spell." Trot worriedly remarked. "And if she catches me, she'll have what she wants. Then we'll _all_ lose! I know I'm with the Legion and I have to be courageous, but…"

"Ya be impo-tant. I an' I undastan' dees." Koup assured. "Mebbe I go een an' scout? Eef dere be no one eenside, I com' back out an' we go een ta-gedda."

"How long do we wait?" Trot asked.

"Ohh, 'bout an hour." Koup estimated. "Afta dat, ya head fa HQ. Trot be showin' ya where eet ees, Fleepah."

" _Please_ be careful, Koup." Trot remarked worriedly.

"I an' I be fine, seestah." Koup assured. "I be Legion o' Courage, afta all!" With a wink, he dove down towards the large palace, leaving Trot and Flipper to watch his fast descent.

As the entranceway to the palace remained wide open, Koup was able to zip right in and keep above the ground as the winged baboon began his progress through the eerily silent splendor of the Jinxland palace, the passages of which were very well-decorated. The rooms he saw within the palace were large and had exquisite furnishings, although some of them had stone statues with shocked and alarmed expressions on their faces.

Beds of flowers and fountains also decorated the interiors of the palace, and there were multicolored walkways made of fine marble, matching together in quaint designs. Every now and then, Koup would fly past a soldier or two…one of many…who had similarly surprised expressions on their face, no doubt reacting to the sight of their own skin turning a hardened gray.

Koup couldn't help but feel sympathy for these poor souls, all of them apparently guilty for the crime of wanting to live a routine life free from trouble. Victimized by a young princess bewitched by a wicked witch on the orders of a greedy king.

He had wondered where this king could be. The palace was obviously not among the places the Legion had been collecting stone statues from, deeming it too much of a risk for the possibility that the witches might have been there. All the statues he had seen thus far in his scouting efforts looked far too benign and innocent to be of a kingly nature in Koup's simian eyes.

There were, however, a group of statues which looked far more familiar to the winged baboon, and he had to settle himself to the ground in his shock.

Apparently decorating a large area just before the door to the throne room were the stone semblances of Emperor Nicholas Chopper of the Winkie Country, the Hungry Tiger, who Koup knew to be the majordomo of the Legion of Courage and his king's best friend and right hand, the benevolent and powerful Glinda the Good, her coven-sister Locasta, and the Princess Ozma of Oz.

He couldn't help but wonder, for the space of a moment, how the much more savage winged baboons that preceded the more pleasant few of Koup's breed who lingered in Oz when the rest were banished might have felt about this advantageous situation. Surely, seeing the one who used her immense power over magic to exile them all to the lands on the opposite side of the deadly desert turned into nothing more than a powerless stone monument would certainly have buoyed their spirits enough to compel them to return and wreak havoc on more than just the China Country, which they once decimated at the command of the tyrannical and corrupt Wicked Witch of the East.

His gaze lingered on Glinda, remembering how he felt like an outcast among the winged baboons for actually feeling sympathy for the people she protected. He remembered fearing a confrontation with the Good Witch of the South, believing that she was certain the winged baboons were uniformly a menace, and that there couldn't be a single one among them who felt contrary to any desire to destroy indiscriminately.

His courage, however, settled him in front of the doors to the royal palace, and the handmaidens guarding the door allowed him in without casting any harsh judgment, and when he finally confronted Glinda, he was not met with any manner of suspicion.

He was instead met with a smile.

It was fortunate that he knew of the few who were contrary to the more numerous winged savages of his kind, and it was these winged baboons who were spared when the incumbent Wizard of Oz ordered their banishment. Koup was hailed for his bravery once the more destructive baboons were gone, and not just by the Wizard and Glinda, but by those few winged baboons he had spoken for as well.

About two or three minutes had passed, in Koup's reminiscence, before he realized he had to get back to scouting around. His next stop was the throne room. The simian visitor had to pull on the thick door with all his might before he could get it open wide enough for him to slip through. Fortunately, the door did not slam shut when he made it inside.

With careful and silent steps, he surveyed the relative darkness of the room. The light sources were dimmed, but Koup was able to at least see the lavish splendor of the throne room itself, even with the colors muted. There were more guard statues with the requisite surprised reactions…

…and a statue he nearly ran into which, when his eyes fell upon it, made him jump back fearfully.

Upon this old man's head was a crown, and it looked like he had been petrified in the act of trying to rush at someone with an angry expression. His arms were raised up as if trying to reach at his quarry. His glare and his open mouth, which seemed to be screaming more in rage than in fear, contributed to Koup's startled reaction.

Koup had to conclude that this was, in fact, King Krewl himself.

Behind the vacant throne room seat, the winged baboon spotted a blank wall, but there was a large, silver shield against it, directly across from the back of the throne seat. The other walls were decorated only by lavish curtains, so this particular wall held his curiosity.

The shield would not budge when he tried to move it…

…but when Koup pushed upon it in frustration, the wall portion the shield was on scraped inward with a deep rumbling noise, revealing a concealed room!

Carefully stepping inside, his padded feet maintaining his silent advance, Koup's eyes fell upon another large room within the palace, this one illuminated by a glow within the center of the room.

In the center of the room was a polished obsidian pedestal, and sitting upon the top of this pedestal was the glowing object that produced the soft glow illuminating the room.

It was a crystal clear orb.

When Koup stepped up close to this orb, he came to realize, conclusively, that this orb was a factor in the generation of the prohibiting barrier.

Because deep within the orb was an illusionary semblance of Jinxland itself.

The winged baboon wondered what the significance of the shield on the wall of the secret door was, if it wasn't just something as meaningless as a decoration. Was this some kind of defensive measure against outsiders, Koup thought? It seemed to make sense, but only if there was some kind of logic that would lead the jinxlanders to harbor any kind of distrust for the surrounding Quadling Country lands, if not the whole of Oz itself.

So absorbed was he in his attention to the stone that he could not avoid the solid grip that suddenly grabbed Koup by the neck, and he wriggled wildly to try and escape it. The grip was painfully tight, and surprisingly cold, and Koup screeched loudly in his futile efforts to escape his being seized.

Gloria smiled coldly as she slowly tightened her grip on the winged baboon's neck, the unnatural strength provided to him by the blue pearl in her other fist that he had taken from Pon, who was on all fours next to her, staring curiously up at the gagging baboon…

…who then began flapping his large wings furiously upon the face of the bewitched princess, whose senses were jarred enough to loosen her grip on the baboon. Koup was easily able to escape her grasp, and he angrily turned to face the one who held him.

Gloria herself had a defiant glare on her face as she squared off with Koup. "Don't even _try_ touching me, monkey boy. I'll break every bone in your silly little body with ease."

"Ya gonna _'afta_ break me, missy." The winged baboon grinned defiantly as he moved, ready for anything. "De Legion o' Courage stayin' 'till ya free from de baaad mageek."

"Hmph." Gloria rolled her eyes in derision. "Suit yourself."

Koup was easily able to dodge the initial attempts by the princess to grab and strike at the nimble, winged creature. He was also able to sidestep the sudden lunge made by Pon, who was instinctively protecting Gloria.

The airborne baboon then grabbed Pon and carried him out of the secret room, knowing full well that the area did not have enough space for him to function evasively compared to the larger throne room. The old man writhed and growled as much as he could in his protest, and much to Koup's surprise, Gloria had a look of desperation on her face when she saw the winged baboon hover Pon far above the ground.

"Lower my pet to the ground!" Gloria screamed. "NOW! And don't you _dare_ hurt him!"

"Whad-da ya care, missy?" Koup responded. "Ya care fah _no one,_ do ya? What make _dees_ one any deef-rant?"

"He's my _pet!_ " Gloria screamed. "Now _bring him down!_ "

"An' what eef I _don't?_ " His strong wings keeping him airborne, Koup carefully adjusted his grip in such a way as to cover the old man's mouth and his nose, grasping tightly to him. Pon continued to writhe and thrash fruitlessly until his body went limp. All Gloria could do was watch and continue hollering her futile commands for the baboon to release him. She actually attempted to leap up at him, given her augmented strength, to grab her airborne quarry, but Koup dodged her attempts easily.

As Pon lapsed into unconsciousness, Koup whispered into his ear. "Sorry, brudda. Ya be right as rain soon. I an' I promees."

Gloria now roared with unrestrained rage, and she ran for the only real rudimentary weapon in the room.

The throne seat.

Empowered by the blue pearl, she grabbed the rooted throne with one hand and began pulling it up off the ground it was fastened to. Unable to withstand the immense magical power, the throne's wooden legs began to crack and splinter. In the next moment, the seat had been pulled off the legs completely with a loud snap.

Gloria then turned her eyes back to Koup, who was in the process of settling Pon to the ground. He was working on unfastening the old man's collar when Gloria furiously raced over holding the throne, ready to strike him with it. Her eyes flashed with rage and her teeth were clenched in her fury.

One of her ankles, however, was suddenly grabbed, and the raging princess collapsed to the ground hard. In the next moment, something large had dropped upon her back in an attempt to hold her down. Her first instinct was to grab whatever it was and crush the life out of it…

…but to Gloria's surprise, the creature was _too heavy_ for her to move!

The hand that held the pearl had opened without Gloria realizing it! That hand began patting around in desperation for anything round…

…but she saw a second pair of monkey feet walking up to her. Angling her head up as much as she could from her face-down position, she saw a familiar simian face holding an even more familiar blue pearl up for Gloria to see.

Trot smirked as she held up the pearl. "Are you looking for this?"

Koup frowned as he walked over to where Flipper was holding Gloria down, and where Trot was standing. "So much fa trusteen' ya ta wait outside!"

"Hey, don't look at _me._ " Flipper protested. "It was _Trot's_ idea!"

"Get… _off_ of me!" Gloria growled. "PON! Gaah! Such a worthless _pet!_ "

Koup walked over to Gloria and wagged the collar strap in front of her face. "Not anymore, missy. Eet be leeb-a-raation day fa Pon."

"And bedtime for _you!_ " With her left simian hand clenching the pearl, Trot's right fist came down like a jackhammer on Gloria's head, rendering her unconscious in one shot.

"Did you find anything that could help us with the barrier?" Flipper asked, moving off of the back of the unmoving princess.

"I an' I _teenk_ so." The baboon indicated the open entrance to the secret room. "Ees een _dere_. But we betta find some'teen ta tie up preencess tight."

Finding a sturdy length of rope in one of the many large rooms of the palace, Trot placed the pearl in her mouth, making sure she didn't swallow it, and still felt the augmented strength as she wrapped the rope tightly around the unconscious, blue-veined princess. They then placed her on a bed in one of the rooms of the palace…one which had no windows…and locked the door.

They were back before the open entrance to the secret room, and all three of them moved inside to look upon the pedestal with the enchanted orb upon it. Both Trot and Flipper took a closer look at it, seeing the illusionary image of Jinxland within the clear orb.

Trot brought a simian hand up to try and touch the orb…

"Wait! D…don't touch it!"

The heads of all three turned to see Pon step into the room slowly, his hand held up in restraint. "Y…you'll hurt yourself. Unless…unless you were _born_ in Jinxland…"

"Like _you?_ " Koup surmised aloud.

Pon nodded. "Y-yeah, I…I guess you could say that. I _am_ the gardener's boy, after all…well, I _was,_ at least." He then turned his gaze to Flipper. "Who's your friend?"

"He's an ork. His name is Flipper." Trot replied. "He stopped by to get a drink of water when that magic barrier came up and kept him from leaving." The monkey girl stepped closer to the old man. "Can you help him?"

A pleasant smile formed on the old man's face as he gently rubbed a hand against Trot's furry face. "I'm sure I can." He then stepped over to the orb. "If only we could…do something about that confounded gorge."

The old man's hands went to the east and west sides of the orb, his aged fingers touching and gently turning each side as if unscrewing a cap. One side turned clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. With his fingers still carefully gripping the two sides of the orb, he gently pulled them apart, releasing the illusionary image from the separated orb.

The kind old man then turned to Flipper and smiled. "You can go now."

* * *

 **DOROTHY & THE SCARECROW**

From the moment the group went their separate ways, Dorothy immediately set to sniffing around, leading the Scarecrow, who cautiously followed along behind her. The canine girl seemed entirely eager to sniff around for a track, a notion that logically went hand in hand with what she had become.

Dorothy figured she'd stick to the kind of scents she had picked up on when she tried going into the eight-sided house. The scents that helped more or less identify the more experienced witches that were now their collared captives.

But it was not that scent which Dorothy had suddenly picked up on. It was an entirely different scent, and one that was entirely pleasing to her. After stopping for a moment, she began to sniff a bit more loudly, her fluffy tail wagging behind her and her furry ears rising up with interest.

The Scarecrow noticed this. "Did you find something, Dorothy?"

The canine girl turned her head to her straw-stuffed friend and nodded, her eyes wide. "This way. Keep following me!"

Her digitigrade legs moved a little faster now as she continued to sniff, the scent clearly leading her somewhere. As she had hunched down instinctively, she could not see the path directly in front of her. Yet, she kept moving. The smell remained strong as she continued her progress, letting the scent serve as her path. And not only along hard pedestrian paths, but over grassy plains as well.

But when the Scarecrow saw where the scent was apparently leading them to, the Scarecrow's expression turned grave. "Dorothy…stop. Stop! Hold on for a… _Dorothy!_ "

But the canine girl was far too determined to follow the scent. She needed more of it. It was…appetizing to her. Her pace never slowed as she continued along the scent's trail.

"Dorothy! I…I think this might be a trap!" The Scarecrow warned. "Look where we're headed! Oh, for Ozma's sake, _look up in front of you!_ "

But it seemed as if the furry Kansas girl was lost in the scent, even if the half-ruined landmark that was the eight-sided house seemed empty as they neared it. The Scarecrow had an urge to stop and hide, but he nearly lost Dorothy once to a powerful wicked witch during this unexpectedly perilous trip, and he was not about to let that happen again.

The next voice he heard made him wish that he _did_ stop and hide.

"Come _heeeeeere,_ pet." The voice was unmistakably Blinkie's. "That's my good girl."

The Scarecrow figured that Dorothy would stop in her tracks, finally realizing her mistake.

 _But Dorothy kept going._

The straw-stuffed advisor's face was a mask of horror as his right hand instinctively went to one of the pockets of his outfit to retrieve the object he had brought with him. He knew the effect would not be terribly effective, but it was the only card he could possibly play.

Dorothy settled herself, in an entirely canine fashion, right next to the smiling visage of Blinkie herself, whose hand rubbed gently over the canine girl's head. Dorothy responded quite happily to this, her tail wagging affectionately.

The Scarecrow's face was a mask of complete shock. And this time, there was no collar compelling her actions! "Dorothy!" He hissed in disbelief.

Blinkie looked up to the straw man with a wicked grin as she continued to caress Dorothy's fur gently. "This only seems fair, Scarecrow. You have what you want, and me? I have what I truly want. A pet of my own. Fashioned from the body of a wicked witch's worst enemy."

"Dorothy, _snap out of it!_ " The Scarecrow's voice sounded desperate. " _Please!_ "

"Snap out of _what?_ She's a dog now, Scarecrow." Blinkie gestured for Dorothy to rise up, and she rested herself against the one-eyed witch, who wrapped an arm around her protectively. "My loyal, servile pet. For the rest of her life. You may have gotten the collar off of her, but you couldn't really stop me from giving my dear doggie all the affection she deserves in the short time we've been together. After all…I've _always_ wanted a dog since her other little black pet denied me."

"You're not gonna hurt him, are you?" Dorothy gently cooed, still savoring the witch's petting. "I _like_ the Scarecrow."

Blinkie had to giggle at this. "Only if he behaves himself, pet." She then raised a palm towards the Scarecrow. "Otherwise…I might have to _burn_ him."

Upon saying the word 'burn', a small fireball fired out from the palm and struck the ground near the Scarecrow, forcing him to recoil in fear. The flame lingered for a moment before it quickly weakened and dissolved.

"Oh! Please! Don't do that." Blinkie could feel Dorothy's body jolt with her reaction to the small fireball's impact with the ground. The canine girl's voice was filled with concern. "He's my…my…"

But the rubbing…the gentle scratching…Blinkie was now applying to the back of Dorothy's furry neck was entirely rapturous to the canine girl. "…mmmmy….mmmmmmhhhh…."

Blinkie turned her eyes back to the Scarecrow, fixing another wicked gaze upon him. "You see? I don't even have to cast a spell anymore to deal with her. All I have to do is show her how much I truly love my pet." Her eyes returned to the furry anthro canine in her arms, who was now whining approvingly over Blinkie's petting. "Sit, Dorothy."

Her pet complied, obediently lowering herself to a canine sitting position.

"Gooood girl. Now _stay._ " The wicked old crone sharply commanded. She then turned her attention back to the Scarecrow. "I'm not about to let you take her away from me again, straw man…although perhaps we could make a little… _bargain,_ you and I, seeing as how you have deprived me of my…subordinates."

"Let me guess." The Scarecrow warily responded. "I surrender the witches, you give us Dorothy."

Blinkie's expression visibly soured. "And I thought you had an excellent brain. I already told you I won't surrender Dorothy. You and your friends will just have to accept that she is _mine_ now."

The Scarecrow frowned now. He was logically unwilling to accept this, but at the same time, he was also curious as to her 'offer'. "What do you want?"

Blinkie smirked now. "As a witch, and the leader of my coven, you can imagine how powerful I am in magic. What if I told you I could set all of these jinxlanders free? Every single stone statue would become a living, breathing human being once more."

The straw-stuffed advisor's hands went to his waist warily. "What about Princess Gloria? And Pon?"

"Oh, naturally, I could free them from their enchantments as well…but I'd need the help of those other witches you've captured." Blinkie explained. "Those six witches who directly serve me will do."

"And our friends?" The Scarecrow quirked an eyebrow. "Glinda? Ozma?"

"Ho ho ho! You honestly think I would free _those_ two? Or Locasta?" Blinkie had to laugh aloud at this. "For one who has such a great brain, you're showing an awful lot of _stupidity!_ They'd hunt me down if I freed them, and they'd take me away from my pet! I would sooner _smash_ their stone statues than free them!"

The Scarecrow nodded slowly, a highly risky idea occurring to him. "Then there'd be _no way_ to retrieve them, would there? They'd both be truly dead. Just like the Wicked Witches of the East and the West."

"But you would have the gratitude of the people of Jinxland." Blinkie countered. "You could even be their _king_ if you wanted, Scarecrow."

"I never wanted to be _any_ kind of king, Blinkie. A job like that is for meat people." The straw-stuffed advisor responded. "But if you think I'm going to give my very close friend up so easily…" He indicated a very worried-looking Dorothy. "…then you're very gravely mistaken."

Blinkie smirked, forming another ball of flame in the palm of her hand. "Perhaps you'd like a little more fire, then?"

Although there was a momentary flash of fear on the Scarecrow's face when he saw the palm-sized fireball flare to life, he defiantly held his ground. There wasn't a trace of fear in his expression as he uttered his reply. "Why don't you ask Dorothy?"

Blinkie snorted in derision. "Because if I wanted t…"

Her head had angled back to her pet, who was now looking at the Scarecrow with great concern as she remained rooted to her spot.

Dorothy's eyes then went to Blinkie. " _Please_ don't!" She fearfully whispered.

Blinkie stepped over to Dorothy in a somewhat menacing fashion. "You are _my_ pet, dog. Not the Scarecrow's, not Ozma's, not Locasta's! You're _mine!_ And _ONLY_ mine! _NO_ one will care for you like I have!"

"Who was it that was nice enough to show you how to get back home, Dorothy?" The Scarecrow asked.

"HAH! If you had the power to get home since Glinda gave you those slippers, she could have _told_ you right there, instead of sending you to that charlatan wizard to do his dirty work!" Blinkie countered, certain that this would convince Dorothy to re-think her affection for the Good Witch of the South.

"Who was it that allowed you, your Aunt and Uncle, and your pets to move to Oz when you were going to be evicted out of your farmhouse?" The Scarecrow next asked.

Blinkie was now getting infuriated, particularly for the effect his words were clearly having on her pet, the conflict clearly evident on her furry face. "One more word out of you, you walking, talking matchstick, and I really _will_ light you up!"

"No you won't." The Scarecrow defiantly shot back, tightening his grip on the object he brought with him. "You're going to _shrink!_ "

As the straw-stuffed advisor brought his hand up to transmit the effects of the green pearl to Blinkie, the wicked witch had cast her ball of flame right at the Scarecrow…

…but the flame died out before it left her hand!

Now it was Blinkie's turn to bear a look of horror, as she watched herself diminish in size! Dorothy's eyes and mouth were wide open in her complete surprise, seeing the one-eyed crone's size dissolve to the approximate length of one's knee. She also seemed to keep casting one spell after another, only to find that she could not cast any spells at all!

"Wh…what have you _done_ to me?" Blinkie screamed. "None of my _spells_ will work!"

The Scarecrow himself was also quite surprised at this unexpected development as he and Dorothy stepped over to the seemingly harmless witch, who dropped to her knees in her despair.

The straw man then turned to Dorothy in his puzzlement. "If she can no longer cast spells, I would think her magic on you would disappear. Why aren't you…you know…becoming _human_ again?"

"Because my magic on her is _strong._ Even if I lost my grasp of magic, my spell upon her won't break!" Blinkie growled defiantly. "I could have restored her, Scarecrow, but now that my magic is gone, you have _no way_ of restoring _anyone_ in Jinxland, or any of your wretched friends for that matter! Congratulations, you bird-brained _imbecile!_ You've just made an irreversible _ruin_ of…of…"

Her expression slowly changed back to shock as her only good eye angled skyward. The barrier high above the land seemed to split apart and disappear, once again giving Jinxland access to the beautiful blue skies above Oz itself!

"Rapture! The skies are open to us again!" The Scarecrow exultantly cried. He then returned his gaze to Blinkie. "Well! I suppose I'm not as bird-brained as you thought, eh?"

When the straw man's eyes glanced to Dorothy, he saw that she was now glaring down upon the shrunken and powerless one-eyed witch. As she did, her eyes began to water.

"Dorothy…?" The Scarecrow quietly remarked, moving closer to the still-canine girl.

Her voice quaked as she spoke. "I love him…." It seemed as if a flame of rage within her was growing. "…I _love_ him…and you were gonna _BURN HIM?_ "

The straw man grabbed Dorothy as she began to move forward towards the smaller witch, growling and snarling. She reached her clawed, padded paw-like hands out towards Blinkie as she struggled against the Scarecrow's attempts to hold her back. "Lemme GO! _Lemme GOOO! GRRROWWWRRRR!_ "

The Scarecrow's head was near enough to Dorothy's right ear, which was lowered in her anger, for the furious canine girl to hear. " _Heel,_ Dorothy…heel…heel…take it easy…relax…heel…please heel…"

Responding to her mental conditioning, the canine girl's anger slowly faded, and she lowered herself back down to the ground, once again sitting in a canine manner as the Scarecrow stepped a pace away from her in relief.

"Look at you now, Dorothy Gale." Blinkie gloated, shaking her head in disappointment. "The great witchkiller of Oz, now nothing more than a docile, servile little _dog._ Maybe now that you're no different from that little black beast who follows _you_ around, I should try again to take _him_ to be my pet instead."

As Blinkie spoke, the angry straw-stuffed advisor grabbed a rock from the ground, and slammed it as hard as he could against the back of the one-eyed witch's head once she was done speaking. The shrunken miscreant collapsed to the ground from the hard strike.

The Scarecrow's glare remained on his face as he dropped the hand-sized rock beside him, his eyes locked on the unconscious coven leader. "If you were no different from the Wicked Witch of the West, I'd drop you in a lake and watch you _dissolve_ for all the pain you've caused!" He then moved back over to Dorothy and crouched beside her, speaking tenderly. She looked like she was on the verge of crying. "Hey! Come on! Cheer up! We won a really big victory just now! We just defeated the leader of the witch coven, and our friends got rid of the barrier in the sky!"

Dorothy still looked and sounded sullen as she spoke. "I…I'm still a dog though, Scarecrow…a-and everyone else…they're still stone statues."

"Maybe the Wizard of Oz can help us restore them all." The straw-stuffed advisor gently ran a stuffed hand over Dorothy's hair in consolation. "Maybe he can restore _you._ "

"But what if he _can't_ , Scarecrow?" Dorothy whined. "Glinda said he's still an apprentice. He may not be powerful enough to restore me. What if I'm _stuck_ this way?"

"Well…then I guess I…I'll just have to go to Bolger and tell him to take my stuffing and…and put it in a patchwork quilt covering in the shape of a dog, so we can be dogs together!" The Scarecrow noted. "Although…you may have to teach me how to be one…I mean, all I know how to do is to be what I am now, after all."

Dorothy tilted her head thoughtfully, her canine ears raising up. "You…you'd really do that for me?"

The straw man's voice was filled with resolute conviction. "If it comes to that with you? I surely will! Who cares _what_ we look like, or what our _shapes_ are? Isn't it who we all are _inside_ that matters?"

Dorothy's furry arms wrapped around the straw-stuffed advisor affectionately, squeezing him tight. Her tail wagged wildly behind her as she rested her head against his.

Dorothy spoke softly as she replied. "I'd rather be your patchwork girl…Scarecrow…"

The Scarecrow smiled as he continued to gently stroke his beloved Kansas friend's body of soft fur, somehow confident that matters were about to take a turn for the better in Jinxland.

* * *

The small, white-haired, gray-skinned nomes that visited Captain Fyter's stranded entourage from Pingaree…all of whom were now prisoners of the Nome King…on a regular basis since their imprisonment in the same underground space they had landed in offered no conversation, nor did they answer any questions asked by these nomes, who provided their captives with plenty of food and drink. They even answered requests for specific food, albeit with the same emotionlessness that apparently defined these small, rock-skinned caretakers.

Yet, to King Kitticut, no one seemed to want to leave. They all strangely seemed to tolerate this drafty, spacious area. The old monarch began to wonder if it was because of the only other person within this space who lingered in the shadows when they fell into this holding area.

He was an old man, perhaps a little older than the King, but with a far more shaggy appearance. In fact, shaggy defined not only the abundance of somewhat unkempt gray hair on his head and his body, but also his outfit as well. The younger captives among the people of Pingaree seemed to gravitate to him first as his gaze lingered upon this old man, who seemed to say pleasing things, and engaged the younger people of Pingaree with a variety of stories which Kitticut was too far away from this shaggy man to hear.

Inevitably, Kitticut's curiosity got the better of him, and he rose up to approach this apparently kind old man. As he got closer, his want to find out more about him grew, but any hint of suspicion or distrust evaporated as he stopped before him.

The king felt compelled to show courtesy in that moment. "Pardon me…uh…may I sit with you? I am King Kitticut of Pingaree. The young ones you've been entertaining are among my subjects. Everyone else here also lives under my rule."

The old man's eyebrows raised up. "Really? I should hope you are a _kind_ ruler? That you are loved by your people?"

"Oh yes! I should think he's a very good king." A little Pingaree girl near him spoke out in assurance to the shaggy storyteller.

Kitticut had to chuckle at this. "Thank you, Priscilla. I hope I never begin disappointing you."

"So you are receptive to your people's needs?" The shaggy man asked.

"Oh, quite receptive." Kitticut replied. "At least, as receptive as I can be, but also as fair as I can be."

"And do you believe yourself to be a perfect king, I wonder?" was the shaggy man's next inquiry, which he spoke with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh, I think that there is no such thing as a perfect king." Kitticut responded. "For one to be a good king, one must be at peace with the wisdom that not everyone will appreciate all the actions of a king, but to have as many of the right ones appreciate a good king's effort, at the very least, to be good. But I would never call myself _perfect._ "

The shaggy man nodded, smiling. "Because perfection is in the eyes of the beholder."

Kitticut nodded. "Indeed, good sir."

The old man then motioned for the old king to fill the space next to him. "Please, your majesty."

Kitticut oddly felt a rush of excitement as he settled himself next to the unkempt, but pleasant-sounding resident prisoner. "You seem far too kind to be in a dreadful place like this. May I ask why you are here?"

"Well, I…I set out sometime ago from my hometown of Butterfield, Kansas to find my younger brother, who had gone missing. This after an embarrassing little incident involving a debt, and another one in which a lovely young woman was the indirect cause of another unfortunate problem. Following a lead which required me to board a steam ship to Australia, the ship ran afoul of terrible weather and I was forced overboard. The currents took me to a sandy beach where I was forced to flee from a group of…rather odd, but terribly unpleasant individuals who had… _wheels_ where their hands and feet should be. It was one of those nomes who tricked me into coming down here, and I've been here ever since my subsequent confrontation with that most disagreeable Nome King."

Kitticut nodded. "So you never found your brother?"

"Actually? He _is_ here, but he is in another area of these caverns." The shaggy man confirmed. His expression then dissolved to a more lamented one. "Although he…well, he now looks _nothing_ like the dapper-looking young man he should be, and I suppose we have Roquat's…well, occasional flashes of cruelty to thank for that."

Kitticut frowned in confusion. "Roquat?"

"That is the Nome King's name, your highness." The shaggy man answered. "You always need to be cautious when you deal with that particular nome, your majesty. He can be most unpredictable. Sometimes, he can be a most kind and charming host. There are times, however, when he will think only of himself and whatever manner of action he feels he can do, justifying it merely by boasting of who and what he is. What happened to my brother is certainly evidence of Roquat's penchant for less-than-cordial behavior."

The king of Pingaree looked worriedly to his many subjects, all of them busy eating their provided food and drink. "I just hope he doesn't decide to do anything bad to any of _us._ We've already had plenty of sudden misfortune as it is!"

"I'm afraid that is solely up to Roquat, your highness." The shaggy man reminded. "In these Nome Dominions, his rule is absolute, and his every wish, no matter how radical they might be, is always fulfiled. Such was the apparent fate of the last group of prisoners he took. A mother…who I believe was a Queen…and her ten young children."

Kitticut's eyes widened in his disbelief. " _Children?_ What…what _happened_ to them?"

"He placed them in a rather large, and quite magnificent, room full of exquisitely-designed ornaments."

The king couldn't help but find this to be an odd course of action for a subterranean monarch whose actions wavered between the distinctions of good and evil. "Hmm! That doesn't seem so bad. They may have caught Roquat on one of his _better_ days, eh?"

The shaggy man's face remained grave, however, and the king's own face dissolved to one of concern when he heard the kind old man's reply.

"I sincerely doubt that the Queen and her children appreciated being turned _into_ ornaments, your majesty."


	11. XI: Truth, Love, and Courage

**XI: Truth, Love, and Courage**

Once the ship had cleared the docks, Betsy Bobbin had gotten everyone who had volunteered for the sea voyage together to make an inconvenient, but humble and honest admission.

She was not a sailor.

She explained, in her own way, that she had traveled beyond the borders of the land of Oz by way of a dirigible craft with simplified flight mechanics, and she had the aid of friends when she made the journey.

One of the many that volunteered to join Betsy on her journey had reminded her, however, that the job of a Captain was to command where the ship was to go. It was the job of the Captain's crew to actually do the work required to keep the ship moving, and keep the ship positioned in a way that would allow them to take full advantage of the wind currents that were necessary for their seaborne vessel to stay mobile.

In response, Betsy looked to the ex-Coregos soldier, whose name was Salvo. "It looks like we're on one o' them 'warboats'. Can y' work th' cannons if we run into any trouble?"

"I've done it many times before, Captain." Salvo assured. "Although I certainly can't work them alone. I will need help."

Her next words were to the crew, and she shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. "Anyone not doin' anythin' needs ta help Salvo with th' cannons!"

One of the liberated Pingaree fishermen stepped over to Salvo. "I'll help, but I'll need you to show me how those cannons work."

Three others joined this fisherman in their curiosity over the ship's armaments, and Salvo took his new cannon crew below decks. As they went down, the female Pingaree mariner, whose name was Coral, stepped over to Betsy. "I found a map and a sextant down in the Captain's Quarters. If it's okay, I'd like to help you make sure we're going in the right directions."

"Sounds good t' me, Coral." Betsy replied.

"I guess that makes you her First Mate." Bilbil the goat remarked as he trotted over to them.

Coral shrugged, smiling. "Sounds good to me."

The young nome stepped over to Betsy as well. "Can I be second mate? I mean…maybe I can ask the rocks things. I can do that, you know, since I'm a nome. Maybe they can, you know, help us go in the right direction."

Betsy shrugged. "Okay. You be sec'nd mate then, but y' gotta help Coral show us th' right way t' go."

"Aye-aye, Captain." The eager-sounding nome replied.

Bilbil remained with Betsy, watching Inga walk alongside Coral. "I should remind you, Captain, that the 'nome' there is not really a nome. He's supposed to be a young human boy. He's also the Prince of Pingaree."

"Really?" Betsy looked surprised as she turned to the goat. "What happen'd t' him?"

"We met the king of the nomes in a cave on the island we just left." Bilbil replied. "His name was Roquat. He transformed Inga as he slept. He also told us that he'd restore Inga if we found a small magic rock called the Medusa Stone. I know you're on your own quest, but if you hear anything about this stone…"

"I'll be sure an' let y' know. An' if we _do_ find th' stone itself, it's yours." Betsy assured.

Bilbil nodded. In that moment, however, a voice cried out from a watchpost up on the warboat's center mast, which was called the Crow's Nest. "SHIP A-HOOOOY!" The ex-Coregos soldier called out, pointing in the direction of another vessel that was sailing towards them.

Betsy felt relieved in her initial assumption that this was her namesake ship that had been found.

All eyes on the ship turned towards this distant vessel, similarly believing it to be the amazing ship that was capable of flight. Much to Betsy's dismay, the viewing device Johnny Dooit had made for her was nowhere on her person, but Coral provided her with a worn-looking, but nevertheless functional spyglass.

"Is that your flying ship, Captain?" Coral asked.

Betsy's hopes, unfortunately, were dashed when she saw that the vessel they approached looked nothing like the _Betsy Bobbin_. She wondered, however, if this new ship might have had something to do with the fact that the flying vessel was no longer anywhere to be seen.

"No." Betsy replied, sighing distressfully. "It's anoth'r ship."

"Is it flying any flags?" Coral then asked.

"Lemme see…yeah. A black one." Betsy responded, still looking through the spyglass as she spoke. "It's got a…a skull, an' two cross'd bones und'r it."

Coral's expression darkened. "Uh oh. That's a _pirate_ ship."

King Rinkitink spoke next, frowning warily. "Can you look along the front edges of that ship for a name? It looks…oddly familiar to me."

Looking around the front areas of the approaching ship, she finally spotted letters just under the outer edge of the ship's starboard bow. They were hard to make out at first, but Betsy lingered the spyglass upon that area until she could see whatever words those letters formed. "Shiv…Shivy…Timm'rs? Tim…"

Rinkitink's expression was now grave. "I knew it." He remarked. "It's the _Shivery Timbers_. We've got to get away from that ship before they get into firing range!"

"Whoa, wait a minute." The Coregos soldier stepped over to Betsy. "I think we can take them. I know that ship too. We were able to drive them away with a few cannon volleys once before."

Coral frowned, finding this hard to believe. "One ship was able to do that?"

The soldier then blushed in embarrassment. "Well…actually, I…think we were part of an escort group that time…"

As Coral sighed in exasperation, Betsy lowered the spyglass, giving the situation a moment's consideration before speaking. A defiant frown was on her face as her eyes lingered on the approaching vessel.

"If we've got guns, we can fight 'em." Betsy then turned to the crew. "An' that's jus' what we're gonna do! Let's get ready t' fight!"

" _What?_ That…that's _insane!_ " Rinkitink whined. He then turned to Coral and the soldier. "You're both experienced hands, aren't you? Can you not see the futility of one boat fighting this particular vessel?"

Coral briefly glanced, distastefully, to Rinkitink without saying a word. She then turned her eyes to the curious and concerned crew of the ship.

"BATTLE STATIONS!" Coral called out. She then looked to the Coregos soldier. "Get your cannon crews busy!"

Nodding once, the soldier called out the names of the shiphands on his chosen firing teams, and they raced to the cannons on the warboat.

"Let's fire a warnin' shot!" Betsy called out. "Let 'em know we're not scared of 'em!"

A couple of minutes later, one of the warboat's cannons emitted a thunderous blast, sending a cannonball whistling in a wide arc over towards the approaching pirate ship…

…but once the hard round struck the ocean surface, the cannonball, much to everyone's amazement, _bounced!_

The cannonball kept its lethal momentum as it elevated upwards in its half-crescent arc, until it struck the starboard hull of the _Shivery Timbers_ with a loud bang, and a violent impact!

 _My, my, my!_ Betsy suddenly heard the voice of Oscar Diggs in her head once again. A smile formed on her young face as she heard his words. _What an unusual hit! One would think the magic of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz is at your beck and call, Captain! Heh, heh, heh!_

The others on the ship, howver, remained mystified. Even Coral's eyes went wide as her head snapped to Betsy.

Betsy went serious once again. "What're ya waitin' for? _Keep fightin'!_ "

Cannons from the _Shivery Timbers_ , however, erupted in a violent cacophany of bangs from afar, and several whistles could be heard in the skies above them. In the four-shot volley of cannon ordnance that came their way, one made a splash big enough to drench Rinkitink in a spill of water, and another solidly struck the warboat's aft hull, right near a cannon emplacement. Shrieks and squeals could be heard all over the ship as they felt the pirate vessel's direct hit.

Coral advised for their warboat to sail a little closer to the pirate ship before they next used their cannons, this after receiving a little advice from Betsy, who had herself been told by the young nome that was her second mate. Inga himself had the benefit of the wisdom given to him courtesy of the white pearl that had been returned to him.

The downside of this wisdom was that they had to risk being hit by more long-range cannon shots. Inga's voice was heard a little more frequently, along with Coral's, as they attempted to navigate around the whistles of cannon shots that were sent their way by the repeated blasts of the ordnance fired by the _Shivery Timbers_.

The warboat was struck three times in their approach. A calamitous hit struck the front of the ship, causing it to shudder and rock. Another was a solid hit at the starboard edge, and the third whistled its deadly arc through the deck, and out the other starboard edge…

…but they miraculously stayed afloat. With the mounting violence of the ship-to-ship battle, Betsy couldn't help but wonder if her decision to close distance and engage in a broadsides duel was a bad idea despite the unexpected assistance of the Wizard of Oz. She also saw that many of the ship's hands were beginning to show their fear. Their faces reflected their worry that this brave show of resistance could end with a few more well-placed hits from the guns of the offending pirates.

Another volley erupted from the guns of the _Shivery Timbers_. The wounded, rocking warboat was now close enough for these potential hits to be significant enough to sink their ship…

…but this trio of cannon shots bounced off of a barrier no one could see! The solid cannonballs harmlessly dropped into the water, once again astonishing the crew.

Once again, Betsy heard Oscar's voice. _You'll be able to fire through this bubble-barrier, Betsy! Get your cannons roaring! You should be close enough!_

Coming out of her momentarily stunned reaction, she lifted a finger towards the _Shivery Timbers_ , her eyes furiously wide. " _START FIRIN'!_ "

There was a moment's pause before the Coregos soldier repeated Betsy's order, and the warboat's cannons sent a four-shot volley hurtling towards the much closer _Shivery Timbers_.

All four of their shots were solid hits upon the large vessel's starboard hull, adding smoking impact points to the one made by the bouncing cannonball. The pirate vessel's own shots continued to impact the transparent bubble formed by the long-distance sorcery of Oscar Diggs, each shot emitting a funny-sounding rebound noise as the lethal shots bounced against it, a couple of them rebounding onto the deck of the pirate vessel itself.

Betsy lifted her spyglass up to look upon the crew of the vessel they were fighting…

…and saw that none of the pirates and buccaneers aboard the ship were completely human.

In fact, they were only _partially_ human.

Each of them looked like a cross between a human and an aquatic…or in the case of its female captain, semi-aquatic…denizen of the deep. He saw men with the bodies and the heads of sharks. Other men had the appearance of lobsters and crabs. Each of the aquatic creatures she saw had an aggressive nature. There was a couple of hands with fish-heads, but rows of sharp teeth that suggested piranhas. A large man at the ship's steering wheel suggested a humanoid octopus, and he had many limbs writhing around him, three of which were at the spokes of the wheel, struggling fruitlessly to steer the ship around the blasts from Betsy's vessel.

They were all in a state of chaos aboard the pirate vessel, no doubt because of the bubble-like barrier that had unexpectedly formed around the spike-lined warboat. Betsy could not make out what they were screaming in the chaos of the battle as cannons from both ships continued to fire forth their payloads, with pauses between each volley so that the cannons could be reloaded by their respective crews.

And whereas he was screaming like a scared girl…before the barrier went up, of course…from all the cannon fire of the _Shivery Timbers_ , King Rinkitink now laughed in a considerably jolly manner as he heard the funny rebounds of the pirate vessel's cannonballs.

"We're not sailing…" the jolly monarch observed in between his giggle fits. "…we're taking a _bubble bath! BAAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HO-HO-HOOO!_ "

The pirate vessel was clobbered by six more hits before Betsy clearly heard a female voice cry out the command that ended the battle. "CEASE FIRIN'! CEASE FIRIN'!"

Betsy yelled out to her own crews in turn as the two ships drifted alongside each other. "Okay! That's enough! Stop firin'!"

Salvo repeated the order to his battle crews, and a wide miss was the last cannon shot…fired forth by one of the weapons aboard Betsy's warboat…before the sounds of cannon fire stopped, and the ships began to drift alongside one another. Although he still found his own observation quite funny, Rinkitink nevertheless composed himself as the ships began to converge.

"We should be careful, Betsy." Coral advised, whispering into the Oklahoma girl's ear from behind. "They may try to board us."

The soldier from Coregos, standing next to Coral, overheard this. Salvo kept his voice low and quiet as he spoke. "Maybe not. They didn't expect that magic bubble." He then looked to Betsy. "I didn't know you were a witch."

The little girl frowned to the soldier, also speaking quietly. "I'm not." After a quick glance to the _Shivery Timbers_ , she turned her head back to the soldier. "But I know a really pow'rful Wiz'rd. That bubble was _his_ magic."

Gasps were heard among the warboat's crew as they saw the half-fish crew of the now-smouldering _Shivery Timbers_ gaze upon the more human crew that chose to fight them. Many frowns were seen upon their half-human faces as they grumbled hatefully.

The thumps of heavy feet could be heard as the largest crew member…who turned out to be the ship's captain…approached the starboard edge. She was in the full suit of a sea captain, and her hat had a large, fluffy feather upon it. She had a head of long human hair, which was oddly blue in color. Her partially pink hide looked perpetually moist as she revealed her large, fat hippopotamus frame. Her hippo's head frowned as her eyes scanned the startled crew of the adjoining ship.

"Anchors away!" The hippo captain called out, her eyes still on the human crew. Her words betrayed an irish accent. "Keep this tub steady!"

Coral whispered into Betsy's ear. "Sails are down for the moment, Captain. Say the word, and we'll get her moving again."

Betsy nodded in acknowledgement, but kept her eyes on the anthropomorphic hippo that apparently commanded these odd, but dangerous-looking pirates.

"Who be yer Cap'n?" The hippo called out. "Ye be showin' _bad form_ in yer broadsides brawlin', mateys!"

Betsy held her head high as she spoke. " _I'm_ th' Cap'n! Cap'n Betsy Bobbin! We're fightin' for our right t' pass through t' where we're sailin'! We were told you were pirates!"

"Aye, that we be, girly." The Captain answered. "An' ye be talkin' tae Scallie Wagg, the pirate queen o' Pingaree!"

Although the hippo Captain voiced this distinction with pride, many of the faces aboard the warboat…most of them Pingaree-born…now looked confused and mystified.

Many of them muttered the same words. "Pirate queen?"

Betsy maintained her undaunted stance as she spoke. "Well…whoev'r y' are, we're jus' passin' through, so don't you both'r us none."

Scallie Wagg's eyes scanned the faces of Betsy's shipmates, and quite easily picked up on a few scared faces. When her eyes returned to Betsy, there was a devious grin on her face. "Ye don't have much in the way o' fightin' men, do ye, girly? What's tae stop me from boardin' ye boat? We won't even hafta swing our blades, will we?"

"Bad idea." The frowning Coregos soldier spoke. "Who do you think conjured that barrier? This little girl knows _magic!_ "

Betsy had to stop herself from correcting the soldier. Scallie, unfortunately, caught this flinch.

Once again, Scallie flashed an unpleasant grin. " _Prove_ it." She then gestured to a nervous-looking shiphand with the long-tusked head of a walrus. "Fry _that_ sea dog with a bolt from high above!"

Betsy couldn't help but bite her lower lip. She expected to hear the Wizard's voice in her head to provide her with a response, and she feared that the Wizard would comply with the request, which would effectively solidify the attempted ruse. She saw the walrus-headed shiphand gaze fearfully up at the skies as other half-human shiphands stepped away from him.

"Hmph!" Betsy raised her head defiantly. "I won't kill nobody! Not ev'n t' _prove_ myself!"

This earned her a quick note of praise from the Wizard's disembodied voice. _Good call, Betsy._

The hippo pirate's eyes widened. "A _merciful_ Cap'n, eh? If only ye knew how many fearful lives that long-toothed cutthroat _ended_ in his young'r days!"

"Prob'ly on ord'rs from _you_." Betsy shot back.

"Hmph! We be _pirates,_ girly!" Scallie's face looked a little more angry now. "We take what we want! An' b'fore we're done with ye, ye'll be swabbin' our decks along with the rest o' ye mateys!"

Angry voices now hollered their agreements with the Captain's wisdom, and it was difficult for Betsy to keep from looking worried…

…but when the hippo pirate's eyes fell upon the gray-skinned, white-haired little boy that curiously made his way to the edge of the boat to look upon the growling pirates, Scallie's eyes widened once again, and her grin slowly melted.

"QUIET!" Scallie roared, and the voices aboard the pirate ship went silent. "Thar be a _nome_ among 'em!"

More concerned, and even fearful, murmurs could now be heard aboard the _Shivery Timbers_ as the heads of those aboard Betsy's warboat now turned to Inga.

"Oy! I'm not goin' aboard!" One of the fish-headed pirates called out. "That nome'll make solid stone outta the lot of us!"

"Ye don't mess with the Nome King's boys, Cap'n!" A shark-headed shiphand advised Scallie from behind. "Mark me words! He be wishin' ye _dead,_ or worse!"

Scallie's eyes narrowed warily as she made her inquiry to Betsy. "An' how be it that ye have a nome among ye?"

Betsy shrugged at this, hoping they would buy her attempt at a ruse. "He got himself lost. That's why we're out on th' seas. We're tryin' t' take him back home."

Inga nodded at this. "Yeah! So don't you pirates go causing us trouble, or I'll…I'll turn you all to _stone!_ "

The young nome brought a gray hand out towards the pirates threateningly, and many of them recoiled fearfully.

Scallie's expression, on the other hand, formed a hateful frown. She practically shook with anger as she growled her words. " _Off_ with ye, then." The hippo pirate angled her head to the aft of the ship. " _RAISE ANCHOR!_ "

The hippo pirate captain remained at the starboard side, the ship beginning its forward movement away from Betsy's warboat as the other pirate shiphands returned to their duties, practically ignoring Betsy and her crew.

Scallie, however, made sure her final words were heard. "Ye best hope ye don't sail near me again, girly!"

Betsy waited until Scallie turned her eyes away from her before she had Coral raise the sails and resume their journey. The winds were initially weak, but they picked up significantly in the next moment, coasting the warboat along the path they were following before their unexpected encounter with the _Shivery Timbers_.

Bilbil trotted over to Betsy. "Talk about a stroke of luck. You took a _big_ risk going into battle with those pirates. You do realize that _we_ were the ones who provoked them."

"Actually, Bilbil, Betsy's actions were quite justified." King Rinkitink interjected. "If they had gotten any closer to our ship, _they_ would have been the ones to fire the first shot, and I fancy those shots would have been significant!"

"My father told me about the pirate queen, too." Inga added. "As I remember it, that ship once belonged to a human pirate named Ellie Kipper before Scallie Wagg raided her ship and took it away from her."

"Did they _always_ look th' way they do, though?" Betsy asked.

"Well, I know my father told me that Scallie Wagg was human when they attacked Ellie, but…well, I guess they were cursed by the mermaids sometime afterwards for some reason." Inga replied. "That's just a guess, though."

Coral had a thoughtful expression on her face as she watched the _Shivery Timbers_ continue its drift away from the warboat. "I wonder if they had anything to do with the disappearance of the Captain's flying ship."

"Ah, _nuts!_ I forgot t' ask if they saw our ship!" Betsy sighed in her dismay, her shoulders sagging.

Salvo offered his own thoughts on this. "If the _Shivery Timbers_ had destroyed this ship of yours, we might be seeing remnants of it floating around the waters right about now."

Betsy nodded receptively. "If we're still good t' sail, we can start lookin' around for 'em." Looking around the area of the ship, she noticed that the bubble protectively remained around the vessel, making the noises around the ship sound a little weird.

After a few minutes of uneventful sailing, the protective bubble suddenly evaporated. In a timely manner, too, as the words from the Crow's Nest high above revealed the likely reason why.

"LAAAAND HO!"

* * *

Whenever the nomes were not around feeding the Nome King's newest batch of prisoners, King Kitticut began to notice that many of the captives were now speaking among themselves in hushed tones, making sure that nomes did not hear them, or notice that they were speaking of things the small, gray-skinned humanoids should not be hearing.

As he was still sitting next to the Shaggy Man, who he had been quite pleased to befriend, the old vagabond noticed Kitticut's curiosity, and Kitticut once again heard his new friend's voice.

"I suspect a plot is being woven, your majesty, by your subjects." The old man remarked. "But, I would suggest that you keep them from any actions. Even now, the King's large-eared nome may be hearing every word they whisper from afar."

Kitticut blinked in surprise. "Large-eared nome?"

The Shaggy Man nodded. "The long-eared hearer, to be precise. Although we are deep beneath the earth, the hearer can hear anyone on the surface, as well as the whole of the dominions. I fancy he could even hear things well beyond the edges of the nonestic isles if he tried. There is precious little that can get past his notice, I'm afraid. I would not want to see any of your people try anything they believe to be discreet."

Kitticut let out a heavy sigh, lowering his head a little. He signaled for one of the whispering prisoners…an adolescent man…and this one diverted to move close to the King of Pingaree.

When Kitticut advised him against any kind of a plot, and explained why, the pingaree citizen looked a bit frustrated. "There's got to be _some_ way we can free ourselves, my King! Maybe we could wait for this 'hearer' to sleep or something?"

"He may have heard your intentions as you spoke them, I'm afraid." The Shaggy Man countered. "Don't be a fool, young man."

"Oh, why must you be so _hopeless?_ " The voice sounded like that of an old woman, and indeed, a short, curly, white-haired and round-bellied woman's upset eyes were fixed upon the King, the Shaggy Man, and the adolescent pingaree citizen. "You can't expect us to accept that we're going to stay here for the rest of our _lives!_ "

The old vagabond sighed, his shoulders sagging and his gray-haired head lowering. " _Please,_ Mira. I beseech you to calm yourself."

"You haven't even thought of a way to free your own _brother,_ have you?" The old woman called Mira shot back. "Sitting around all day while these wretched nomes feed us." She turned her head to Kitticut. "It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he was the _only person here_ that's actually _comfortable_ with our fate!" Her voice then went sullen, and it sounded like she was on the verge of weeping openly. "I just want to go back home! I want to be out of here! This cavern is driving me _mad!_ "

Kitticut frowned in his curiosity. "How long have _you_ been here, Miss…I'm sorry, what was that name ag…"

"Mira." The old woman interjected. "Mirafrost Fondest. In answer to your question? I've been here _far_ too long."

"Indeed. She was resident in this cavern the very day _I_ was first brought in." the Shaggy Man added. "I must admit, though…she was far more tolerant before you and your friends joined us."

Mira shrugged. "So? I'm not terribly fond of crowds! All this murmuring is making my head hurt!"

"Well, we certainly can't just sit in silence, Mira." Kitticut remarked. "What else are we to do to pass the time?"

After a moment of Mira just quietly returning Kitticut's puzzled gaze with a neutral expression, the old woman rummaged through the pockets of her plain-looking dress and then produced a single, palm-sized rock. She then lowered herself to the hard, stony surface and began rubbing one side of her rock against the smooth, bare surface in front of both Kitticut and the Shaggy Man.

The letters were drawn out in rough white lines, but the message gave both men cause to think on the words.

 **How about** **writing** **?**

* * *

For all the sorcerous assists Oscar Diggs was providing Betsy Bobbin with, the old man began to feel the weight of what Glinda had warned him about during his magic training.

One too many powerful spells, she had said, would tax your personal reserves of energy significantly. As these were enchantments of varying power that he had channelled through the large crystal ball, and over a considerable distance, he certainly found himself in need of a break from all the spellcasting, if not just in need of sustenance.

He had been scrying non-stop for many hours, after all.

Fortunately, the handmaidens occasionally checked on him since the banishing of the impostor. They were quick to provide him with delicious food and drink during his time in front of the crystal ball. His work during Betsy's sea voyage, however, compelled him to show off a little more. Making a fired cannonball "skip" over the surface of the water, providing favorable wind currents to keep Betsy's ship moving in the right direction, and lingering a protective bubble around Betsy's warboat to keep it from being destroyed…all this, of course, in addition to the mental communications he had sent to the Oklahoma girl…it all added up to a particularly exhausted Wizard of Oz by the time his work on assisting the sea adventure was done.

Although it is impossible for anyone living in Oz, young and old, to suffer and die from diseases, it was certainly possible for a human of Oscar's age to exert himself…or herself…to the point where their heads begin to throb from the stress. Oscar began to rub his eyes from the stress-related headache he had created for himself once he had confirmed that Betsy's sea voyage was about to end, and that the path ahead of her was relatively free of peril.

Oscar chose to step out into the palace's beautiful courtyard, surmising that the fresh air of the mostly gorgeous and comfortably breezy climate would do him a bit of good while the handmaidens provided him with a full and hearty meal. As they already knew what the Wizard of Oz liked to eat, he did not need to make any requests of Glinda's loyal servants. All he needed to do was to wait.

Oscar slipped out of his coat, draping it over the back of the chair he chose to settle himself into. Although his thoughts had primarily been of Betsy, he now began to concern himself…as he had done every so often…with what might have happened to Glinda, Dorothy, and the entourage that had gone to Jinxland. Even during his time spent helping Betsy, he occasionally made attempts to scry on Jinxland, and there would always be the same absence of an image.

A part of him feared the worst, but he figured he'd pour all of his resources into the effort to get answers once Betsy was back in Oz, safe and unhurt.

Moments later, he could smell the fresh, delicious food coming his way, and a large tray was placed before him, a dome over each offering as per his humble requests. Always assured that he'd enjoy whatever was under the domes, he pulled off the largest one and began hungrily digging into the triple-layered, pre-cut Meatstalk Special, as it was called.

Mashed potatoes seasoned with butter, carrots and peas, a spillage of gravy poured over the potato pile…all of it perfectly cooked, all of it delectable, and very refreshing. Just the thing his near-empty stomach needed. He had been given a full glass of the tangy beverage called lacasa to wash it all down with as well.

He was halfway through his meal when a curious robin settled near his tray, rapidly shaking out his feathers after landing upon the table the tray had been placed on.

Oscar arched an eyebrow as his eyes fell upon the robin. "Curious to see what kinds of things the meat people eat, eh?"

"Oh, no. I've eaten plenty, thank you." The robin replied. "I'm just glad to be someplace other than where I was. I thought I'd _never_ get out of there!"

"Found yourself trapped, eh?" The Wizard smiled. "Well, I'm relieved you were able to find a way out then! It must have been quite an adventure!"

"All I wanted was a quick drink!" The robin explained. "Dove right down into the water and drank my fill, and then some. When I tried flying back up into the skies, I hit something hard! I've been in there for _days!_ "

Oscar frowned in his curiosity. The inquiry was worth a try. "Hmmm…and which place had you been stuck in, little robin?"

"A place with a lot of stone statues all over the place!" The robin replied. "I should report everything I saw to Policeman Bluejay! Maybe _he_ can look into what's going on in Jinxland! I'm just glad I'm finally out of…hey! Where are you going?"

The little robin had obviously missed the shocked and wide-eyed expression on the old man's face as he burst out of his seat and dashed back into the palace, leaving half-eaten food for the little bird to curiously stare upon.

Nibbling at a pea, he found the taste acceptable, and helped himself to some more.

* * *

In the time following her adventures outside of the Winkie Country province that was home to her fellow yips, the cookie cook known as Cayke…who once served as a spy for Dorothy and the Scarecrow during his short reign as the king of Oz, only to be discovered and petrified by Mombi's magic…had settled back into her idyllic baking life, now that the precious and powerful heirloom that was her magic dishpan was back in her possession. Stories of her espionage made her a particularly popular figure among the yips, too.

The land of the yips, much like the Munchkinland realm of the mysterious and somewhat primitive hyup tribe on Mount Munch, was one of the few isolated communities of Oz, although most of the yips had kept abreast of the goings-on outside of their community, and they too were no strangers to the terrorism the Wicked Witch of the West had inflicted upon the land. Many of their own strongest yips, who were no different from the average humans of Oz, were among those who had been charmed, changed, and mentally bound to not only serve, but also resemble the green-skinned crone who had caused so much death and destruction and oppressive tyranny alongside her sister, who had herself conquered the east lands.

Fortunately, the scrutiny of the West Witch was not so focused on the land of the yips that she could learn of the empowering qualities of a rare variety of nonestic agriculture called the Skosh plant. If she had, she might have learned that one such growth existed within a pond located in their realm, growing and thriving beneath its watery surface. As it was such a rare find, few were aware of the plant's uniquely magical properties.

A starving frog, however, was to be the first to exploit it.

He had gone without food for days in his efforts to avoid an equally hungry bird. Sadly, however, his efforts to avoid the bird were in vain, and the poor frog resigned himself to his eventual fate as the bird flew back to her nest to enjoy her freshly-caught meal.

As luck would have it, however, the fact that the bird was so hungry made it difficult for the creature to hold on to her prize, and with the arrival of an unexpectedly strong crosswind, the frog slipped from the bird's grasp and fell to the nonestic lands below.

Upon landing in the pond where the Skosh plant grew, the frog immediately helped himself to the appetizing-looking growth…

…and, much to the green-skinned creature's shock, the frog began to grow!

And not only did this small, harmless frog grow to the size of a middle-aged human, his intelligence increased dramatically as well!

It was the existence of this "Frog-Man" that had been brought to Cayke's attention, although she was at a loss to figure out what had happened. She knew nothing, after all, of the Skosh plant that had evolved the green-skinned amphibian so radically. As they had heard about the return of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz, it occurred to the peppermint-haired cookie cook to venture out to the Emerald City to confer with the great wizard for the answers to this obvious mystery.

Not that the Frogman caused any trouble, though, as he conducted himself in a surprisingly cordial manner. As there were indeed tailors among the yips, he was provided with a most refined set of clothes, all of which were tailor-made for their strange, but thankfully benevolent and well-spoken resident.

Cayke had only begun to consider a trip out to the Emerald City using her magic, gold-lined dishpan…which was capable of growing large enough to accommodate a handful of passengers in its more unique ability to soar into the skies above…when a startling explosion, and a thick puff of emerald green smoke, had Cayke hurrying outside her home to investigate.

The green mists were dissipating quickly once she was outside…but it was the large, round apparition above these dying mists that widened her eyes in her awe.

"GREETINGS, COOKIE COOK!" The large, disembodied head began, its strong and intimidating voice booming loud enough to draw a crowd of yips, young and old. "I…AM… _OZ,_ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL!"

Cayke swallowed hard as she lowered to a knee. "Uhhh…" she stammered nervously. "…hhh-hi?"

"STAND TALL AND PROUD, CAYKE!" The head remarked. "NO NEED FOR ONE SUCH AS YOU TO BE ON YOUR KNEES! I HAVE NOT MANIFESTED TO OPPRESS YOU! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ IS IN HUMBLE NEED OF A _BOON!_ WILL YOU ACCEPT?"

"Um…I…I was actually…coming to see _you,_ g-great Oz." Cayke replied, grinning. "I have questions for you regarding an incident which occurred here, in the land of the yips. If I help you…"

"YOU _DARE_ COUNTER MY REQUEST WITH ONE OF YOUR OWN?" The voice suddenly roared.

At that point, the vision of the head remained still and its lips did not move, but two faint and barely-audible voices could be heard coming from the disembodied head. One was male and one was female. Cayke could recognize Jellia's voice, but not that of the male.

"Oscar! _Shame_ on you! Cayke is a _friend!_ There's no need to intimidate her like that!"

"But I have a _reputation_ to keep, Jellia! I'll give her what she wants! Just… _gaah!_ The effect is still going! I _told_ you not to break my…oh, dear me… _*ahem*_ …"

The confused, frowning yips then saw the lips on the face of the large, glowing head move once more as it spoke. "VERY WELL, COOKIE COOK! YOUR REQUEST SHALL BE GRANTED! BRING YOURSELF BEFORE ME AT THE EMERALD CITY!"

Once again, Jellia's voice was dimly heard. "And bring cookies!"

And once again, the head spoke. "AND BRING COOKIES!"

* * *

Although she still felt a mild throbbing at her head from the blow the Scarecrow had given her, the old crone called Blinkie's one good eye slowly fluttered open…

…and saw the Scarecrow himself staring accusingly down at her, his arms crossed in front of him. He logically looked intimidatingly larger now, given her current doll-like size.

Blinkie's eye narrowed as she looked up, noticing that she had been placed on a wooden table. She figured that she was in one of the many cottages of Jinxland's many civilian settlements. She also felt tight bonds at her wrists and at her ankles, her wrists bound behind her. Although she was now incapable of casting any spells, she at least knew that a witch…perhaps one of the apprentices…had gone rogue on the coven, seeing as how the unbreakable bonds were clearly the result of a cantrip.

"So now you have me." Blinkie contemptuously remarked. "Not that I could ever be much good to you now. Where's my dog, matchstick?"

"I intend to keep Dorothy as far away from you as possible." The Scarecrow replied, maintaining his accusing glare. "For _your_ sake. Or have you forgotten that I kept her from attacking you?"

"Mmmm, yes. Seems you've learned my amusingly simple means of taming my furry Kansas beast." Blinkie grinned wickedly. "I guess she's _your_ dog now, eh? Seeing as how she clearly loves you more than she might love me ever again."

This was enough to compel the straw-stuffed advisor to once again strike the diminished witch…but while there was certainly a rock close enough to repeat the blow, he did not act on this impulse this time. He instead called attention to the business at hand.

"The books, Blinkie." The gloves serving as the Scarecrow's stuffed hands went to both sides of his waist. "The ones we took from your home. We know they're spellbooks, and it would not surprise me in the least that one of them could reverse the stone enchantments on the people of Jinxland."

"Find it yourself!" Blinkie growled. "I'll only warn you that I take no responsibility for what happens to anyone who even _tries_ to read those texts."

"Yes, Tilda already warned us about that." The Scarecrow remarked.

Blinkie now had cause to quite contemptuously laugh aloud, finally hearing the name of the traitor, and feeling far more amused than surprised. "Congratulations! You've allied yourself with the _worst possible apprentice!_ That little brat won't amount to anything _remotely_ resembling a witch! She can't even cast a _cantrip!_ "

"Who do you think it was who had _you_ bound so tightly before you woke up?" The Scarecrow calmly countered.

Blinkie's laughter faded as she nodded in unavoidable acknowledgement. "Yes, yes…much as I would loathe admitting it, these _are_ well-formed bonds I am wearing. But then, even the most pathetic of students can learn a thing or two over time, and Tilda wasted a _lot_ of ours, believe me!"

The straw-stuffed advisor raised an eyebrow. "Just as bad as the other apprentices, eh?"

"Pfft! Petulant egomaniacs! Every one of them!" Blinkie shot back, her tone thick with distaste. "We only taught them just enough for us to use them to our own ends!"

"And those six other witches are…?"

Blinkie's only good eye narrowed once again. "None of your _business,_ matchstick!"

At that point, the hair on the doll-sized old crone's head was grabbed, and then painfully jerked back. A furry, padded paw then placed sharp claws against her throat. Blinkie could make out the growl of a tiger before a very angry Rouse spoke, in a menacingly low growl, into the witch's right ear.

" _Make_ it your business." Rouse pressed her claws against the crone's neck, although she made sure she didn't break the slightly-wrinkled skin. "Or I rip you to pieces for turning me against my friends."

Blinkie's expression all too easily turned to fear upon hearing the tigress render her threat. She could feel the pinpricks of the claws of the feline fighter she once had under her power, and they were pressing in deeper as Rouse spoke.

The one-eyed witch directed her one good eye towards the Scarecrow. It was her last-ditch effort. She had no other cards to play in her waning, but lingering defiance. "You would let her kill me? You would bear witness to cold-blooded murder? That goes against your moral fiber, matchstick!"

"You know something? You're right!" The Scarecrow replied. "I could never watch such a thing."

The straw-stuffed advisor then turned around, now facing away from the now wide-eyed Blinkie, and the now grimly-grinning tigress behind her.

The Scarecrow, however, waited. He had at least been assured, prior to Blinkie coming out of unconsciousness, that Rouse would do her best to maintain control, despite her obvious and all-too-eager want to carry out her ominous threat. He heard the old crone's shaky breathing quicken, and Rouse seemed to respond with another low, feline growl.

The tigress then let out a quick, loud, and angry bark. Finally, Blinkie began blubbering a torrent of nonsensical babble following a fearful squeak.

" _Who are those six other witches?_ " Rouse angrily growled. " _How did you meet them?_ "

"W-We've been together all our lives!" Blinkie whined, her voice still shaking terribly as she spoke quickly. "Offering our s-services to anyone willing to pay for it!"

The Scarecrow frowned at this. "And who hired you to freeze Princess Gloria's heart?"

"Krewl! King Krewl!" Blinkie wailed. "Goog promised him a fortune if we could get Gloria to agree to marry him, but that stubborn little brat kept doting on the gardener's boy!"

"And how does that explain what you did to _Dorothy?_ " The Scarecrow's tone was noticeably bitter as he asked this question.

"That was personal!" Blinkie hissed, her tone becoming a little more wicked despite her situation. "That was _revenge_ for the death of my mentor, the Wicked Witch of the West! _And_ I wanted a pet just like _Dorothy_ had!"

"And a bodyguard like me, obviously." Rouse added, smirking to the Scarecrow. "I'll admit, she has good taste there."

The angry advisor moved in closer to the old crone. "Well, your protective shield is gone now, and once we get the great and powerful Wizard of Oz over here, he's going to do everything in his power to undo _all_ of your rotten magic!"

"And what about me?" Blinkie blubbered. "You really _will_ let Rouse rip me to shreds, won't you?"

"I can think of a much better way to keep you pacified until we're ready to have you face justice." The Scarecrow shot back. He then looked to Rouse. "Take her to the cottage where we're holding her collared friends. In their current mental state, they probably won't even know who she is."

"They've been reduced to animal states, haven't they?" Rouse picked up the one-eyed witch, holding her fast with a tight, furry grip. "Sort of makes you wonder how they're gonna behave around her."

"I don't know, and quite frankly, I don't _care._ " The Scarecrow replied. "Just get her out of here."

Blinkie writhed angrily in Rouse's grip as the tigress padded towards the cellar stairs. "Even if you _do_ fix things, there's one spell of mine you'll _never_ break, matchstick!" She defiantly roared. Any other words were muffled by the presence of Rouse's paw, which was now pressed against her mouth as she carried Blinkie up and out.

The Scarecrow slowly followed Rouse up the stairs to return to where Dorothy, Tilda, the Lion, the restrained and gagged apprentices, Bo, Trot, and Pon were waiting. Pon maintained his vigil over the still-unconscious form of Gloria, Bo had been standing guard outside the cottage, Trot had been staring at her own image in a mirror, while Dorothy, Tilda, and the Lion continued their own vigil over their captured apprentices. The canine girl had briefly turned away from Rouse when she brought Blinkie up, her ears lowering hatefully as she heard the wicked witch speak her last words. She turned to see the Scarecrow step in front of her and Tilda. The Lion also moved in.

"I heard everything." Tilda confirmed. "I think the others did, too."

"Do you think they'd be more willing to help us now?" Dorothy asked.

Tilda shook her head, slowly, in her uncertainty. "I don't know. Maybe they just need a little time to, you know, let it sink in. I had a feeling Blinkie might not have cared about any of us as much as they had fooled us into believing."

"Well, you know dese kids betta den _we_ do, Til." The Lion remarked. "I mean, ya trained tagedda, didn't ya?"

"Not always." Tilda replied. "Some of those lessons were private ones. Sometimes, we were paired off in twos, and whenever we had ritual-casting sessions, they'd bring us all together in front of Blinkie."

Bo's expression was a little wary as she spoke. "Were you with the witches who froze Gloria's heart?"

Tilda shook her head. "That was elder-class magic. Too strong for someone like me to cast. I think Tasia was with them, though. She _hated_ Gloria."

The Lion sighed in his frustration. "Dere's _got_ ta be a way ta fix dat girlie's heart." He turned to the Scarecrow. "C'mon, straw-head! Let's have anudda idea or two! Tink outside da box if ya have ta! All I can tink of is puttin' 'er right up close to a fireplace!"

"If it's magic, it's…not that simple." Pon lamented, his eyes still on Gloria's unconscious form. "Without counter-magic, I…I'll just have to go on w-without…" His voice caught in his throat, not wanting to admit what seemed inevitable. He wiped a tear that began running down from his right eye with a wrinkled, shaky hand.

Dorothy quickly stepped over to the old man, placing a furry, padded hand on his shoulder. "Please don't give up hope yet, Pon. With your help, the skies are open to us now. All we have to do is send Koup out to find someone we all know who should at least be able to thaw out Gloria's heart. Someone who helped the Scarecrow here to realize how wonderful his brain really is, and someone who rewarded the Lion for being the most courageous of beasts in all of Oz. If he could do things like that, I just know for sure he could help you and Gloria, too!"

Pon raised his head up slowly. "Y…your 'Wizard' friend, right? I heard you mention him down there. D-do you really think he can help us?"

"Well, I hope to be able to at least get an 'A' for effort, my good man!"

All heads quickly turned to the open cottage window, where the _very_ familiar voice had come from. Everyone from the Oz contingent had surprised, wide-eyed expressions as their eyes confirmed the smiling presence of Oscar Diggs, the Wizard of Oz himself. He was in Jinxland!

"OSCAR!" Dorothy called out, her ears standing straight up and her tail wagging wildly.

"Your _majesty!_ " The Scarecrow exclaimed. "I was _hoping_ you would get a look at our situation! We _really_ need your help!"

"Yes, I…I did see the stone statues littered around on the Oz side of the gorge. Such frightening expressions of terror!" The old man, who had a large suitcase with him, made his way through the cottage door as he spoke to confront his friends. "Men, women, even children. I'm relieved to see you're not among them, but…" His eyes now fell on Dorothy as he stepped towards her. "…it seems one of you has become the victim of a far more nefarious bit of sorcery. I'm just glad that you're still you in mind, my dear Dorothy, if not entirely in body."

The canine girl lowered her head in her regret. She couldn't help but whimper a bit as Oscar's hand rubbed at her furry shoulder.

"Is dere anyting y' can do for her, great Oz?" The Lion asked. "Can ya change her back?"

Oscar, however, sighed as he looked Dorothy's furry body over. "I'm afraid this is far too thorough an alteration for me to reverse. I can sense that this enchantment has a particularly strong hold on her, too. This is something Glinda would have to fix."

Dorothy nodded, her ears still lowered. "It's OK, Oscar. I understand." She softly remarked. She then gestured over to Pon. "I just hope you can help Pon here, at least."

"Oh, I can do far better than that, my dear." Oscar responded. "All I would need is but a single person fluent in the magical arts. I don't suppose you might have run into one during your adventures here, have you? One that was not so wicked as to inflict your current predicament upon you?"

The Lion immediately grabbed Tilda's wrist and pulled her over, much to the surprise of the young apprentice, who looked very hesitant at this gesture. "Got ya girlie right here, great Oz."

"Lion, no! I…I couldn't!" Tilda stammered. She looked to the curious old man as he gazed upon her. "I'm sorry, sir…I'm just an apprentice! I'm not even very good at cantrips!"

"You were able to bind your apprentice friends and Blinkie, Til. Conjured the bonds out of thin air, didn't you?" Bo reminded. "Maybe you just need a better teacher. I have a feeling Oscar's guidance would do you a _lot_ of good."

Although Tilda still looked very hesitant, her uncertain and nervous gaze went from the floor in front of the Wizard of Oz to the eyes of the Wizard himself. "W-what did you want me…to help you with?"

"First thing's first." Oscar then turned to the Scarecrow. "Do you know what happened to Glinda?"

The straw-stuffed advisor nodded. "Glinda, Ozma, Locasta, Nick, and the Hungry Tiger were all turned to stone, just like the townspeople. They should still be at Jinxland's royal palace, just outside the throne room."

"It's all my fault." Trot then murmured lamentedly. "They tricked me into doing it."

Oscar turned to face the furry monkey with the curiously human head of hair. "Well! This is a first, I must say! I've never met a monkey capable of using magic!"

"No, no. I can't use magic at all." Trot quickly responded. "I'm not even a monkey. Those witches turned me _into_ one. I came here from California to find a friend of mine. A sailor with a wooden leg. His name's Cap'n Bill. They told me they'd help me find him if I did something for them. They gave me a rock which turned your friends to stone. They told me they were _evil._ "

"And her reward was this transformation." Bo added. "She's been a monkey ever since."

Oscar slowly and thoughtfully nodded. "And where is this magic stone now?"

"Well, I…" She looked down at her round gut. "…I kinda swallowed it."

"Would you need the stone to reverse the spell on the townspeople, Oscar?" Dorothy asked.

Oscar's perplexed expression more or less made the answer obvious. "I'm afraid so, Dorothy. The statues are not natural formations, but enchanted ones serving as a replication of the original material. To be able to transmute the stone surfaces back to their natural flesh-and-blood origins, I will need to hold that stone in one hand as the ritual is performed."

"Couldn't you use magic to get the stone out of Trot's stomach?" The Scarecrow asked.

"Far too risky a suggestion, I'm afraid." Oscar replied. "Although I have become fairly adept at sorcery under Glinda's tutelage, only Glinda herself could perform such a radical relocation of a small object without harming Trot. If I tried it, there's a far greater risk of internal injury. The upshot, however, is that a stone…particularly a magic stone…should be quite impossible to dissolve and digest."

"But how are we going to get that stone out of Trot?" Dorothy asked.

"I believe we would have a better chance of extracting that stone if we included one of the nonestic rock fairies…otherwise known as the nomes…in the casting of the necessary spell." Oscar responded. "That, however, will require a trip to their subterranean dominions. To get there, however, we will need to cross the deadly desert, which is impossible to traverse on foot."

Trot looked curious. "Why?"

"Any living creature who sets foot on the sands _becomes_ sand." The Scarecrow answered. "Nick Chopper and I wouldn't have to worry, of course, since we're not meat people."

"An' since we clearly need ta bring Trot along, among uddas, we're gonna need a way fer us _all_ ta get across." The Lion added. He then looked to Oscar. "Got any ideas dere, great Oz?"

"I actually remember bringing that subject up with Glinda during my training." Oscar answered. "And wouldn't ya know it? She told me Ozma created an enchanted carpet which would not only allow us all to safely cross the desert, but which would also protect us from the desert's other hazards."

"Hmmm. I know a little something about those nomes." The Scarecrow looked wary as he spoke. "Their king isn't always the most benevolent of rulers. He may not be very willing to help us."

"Maybe if we were able to convince one of the _other_ nomes?" Dorothy offered. "I'm sure at least _one_ of them might be sympathetic to us."

"Precisely my thinking, Dorothy." Oscar responded. "Although, of course, we shouldn't leave Jinxland without sentinels to watch over it in our absence!"

"We can do that, my King." Bo stepped over to the Lion. "The Legion of Courage will remain here while you are away, and keep an eye on these witches."

"Save one, of course." Oscar turned to Tilda. "Might I impress upon you to, uh… _join_ us for this little adventure abroad?"

"Me?" Tilda looked visibly uncertain. "But I…I don't know how much help I could be. I told you…I can barely cast cantrips."

The Lion looked a little disappointed in Tilda's obvious hesitance. The Wizard, however, had a more contemplative expression as he stepped over to the young apprentice.

"I wonder, my dear, just how loyal you were to Blinkie and her coven." Oscar then mused aloud. "Aside from your obvious tutelage, did they have you do anything particularly wicked in nature? Might they have forced your hand, perhaps, in doing something you felt was wrong?"

Tilda shrugged. "They sent us out to try and capture Trot. Since they wanted her alive, it didn't really bother me much. I mean…I had wanted to just bind her. The others looked a little more willing to hurt her."

Oscar placed a hand on the shoulder of the young apprentice, smiling. "Did those witches ever teach you that some forms of magic are at their most effective when it comes from the heart? When it is an extension of the caster's nature?"

After a moment of thought, Tilda shook her head.

"Well, my dear, I happen to know enough about magic to tell you that pure sorcery…at least, the variety of magic commonplace throughout these nonestic isles…is partially dependent on raw desire, and reflects the very nature of the spellcaster himself. Or _her_ self, in your case. Your fellow apprentices sound as if they have a dollop or two of natural wickedness, so spells of that nature tend to manifest quite easily to them. Perhaps the reason why _you_ feel such doubt that you can manifest even the most rudimentary of cantrip magic among your naturally wicked peers is quite possibly because you are, at heart, a _good_ witch! One that just happened to be cantrip-trained by wicked ones."

Tilda needed a moment to let this sink in as a smile slowly formed upon the Scarecrow's mouth. "You really think so?" Tilda asked.

"Precisely the reason why I'd like you to join us, my dear." Oscar replied. "I want to put this possibility to the test! In essence, you would be _my_ apprentice in the time we spend together. Assuming, of course, that you would want to join us to begin with?"

Tilda still looked unsure. "I don't even know your name."

"Oh, dear me, yes! Where are my manners? I never properly introduced myself to you, have I?" The Wizard extended a hand to the somewhat nervous-looking young apprentice. "Oscar Zoroaster Phaedrig Issac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, otherwise known as the great and powerful Wizard of Oz."

Tilda took the hand and shook it gently. She still looked a little nervous. "I'm Tilda. Nice to meet you, Mr. Diggs."

The moment Oscar heard the name, he stopped for a moment, his eyes angling thoughtfully to the side as an eyebrow raised. That particular name sounded oddly familiar to him. A name, he silently surmised, he might have heard during his training in magic with Glinda, or so he was dimly able to recollect. For all his need to commit techniques in the casting of magic to memory, it made the more trivial things in his mind a bit more challenging to hold on to.

Tilda and the Scarecrow noticed the Wizard's contemplative expression, and they could not help but look similarly curious. It was the straw-stuffed Scarecrow, however, who voiced his curiosity. "Uh…Wizard? Are you…?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, yes." The Wizard cordially waved off their concern. "Pardon my hesitation there. Obviously, it's something only Glinda herself could confirm anyway. We can't get anywhere just standing about, though, can we? We should find a means to get us all across the desert, and then make most careful haste for the Nome Dominions to find the necessary catalyst we need to break this most nefarious of wicked witchcrafting here in Jinxland."

"Uh, great Oz…" The Lion stepped over to the old man. "…not ta break ya chain a' tinkin', but…is dere anythin' ya can do fer _dese_ two?"

The Lion's furry paw indicated the sullen-looking old man called Pon and Gloria, who looked like she was beginning to stir from her unconsciousness.

Oscar rubbed at his chin thoughtfully as he looked upon the two tormented souls, taking note of Gloria's particularly chilly appearance. He glanced to the Scarecrow. "This has all the earmarks of a particularly unpleasant ritual enchantment. The 'Chill of the Frozen Heart'. Fortunately, this is something we can conceivably remedy right here, and right now…providing we can find a precious stone. Preferably a ruby. I don't suppose Jinxland has mineral deposits we might exploit? Perhaps a mine of some sort? Otherwise, we'd have to find one during our trip to the Nome Dominions."

As Oscar finished speaking, the Scarecrow's thoughts compelled him to look around for a certain bag containing a collection of unique stones. Fortunately, it was right where they had left it, and he brought it over to the old man. "I think there's a ruby among these stones, great Wizard!"

The eyes of the old man called Pon widened in his concern. "No! Y-you can't use that one! That's the one that _explodes_ when it's thrown! You…you might hurt yourself!"

The Wizard produced the very same red stone from the bag, holding it carefully with the tips of his fingers. "You do mean _this_ one, yes?"

"Yes!" Pon confirmed, still terribly nervous. "Oh, please be careful…!"

"Fortunately, this stone, to be capable of producing such a dramatic discharge of heat-based magical energy when impacting a hard surface, will be _exactly_ what we need, my good man." Oscar assured. He then turned to Tilda as Gloria's eyes began to flutter open. "Now here's what I need you to do, dear…"

"What's going on? OW…my head!" Gloria rubbed at the area where Trot had clubbed her. "Where am I?" Her eyes then fell upon Pon, and her expression soured. Her voice was laced with heavy sarcasm as she spoke. "Oh. It's _you._ How _wonderful._ "

As the Wizard and Tilda murmured to each other in exchanging their discreet, and barely-heard instructions, Pon glanced hesitantly to the frigid-hearted young princess. He wanted to say something, but he kept quiet.

"That's right. Just stay as pathetic and as quiet as you've _always_ been, _pet._ " Gloria mercilessly chided. She noticed everyone else near her was glancing upon her with similarly regretful expressions. "What in the _world_ are you all looking at? Get your eyes off me, Dorothy! Go fetch a bone or something, furball!"

Oscar and Tilda now placed their hands upon the ruby with careful grips. They both closed their eyes and began speaking bizarre words in a soft tone, their voices at the very same pitch as the red stone they both held began to glow a much brighter red.

Pon's horrified expression intensified. "What are you _doing?_ Y-you'll kill us all! It's going to…to…!"

The Scarecrow placed a hand, gently, upon Pon's shoulder. "I don't think so, my friend. Oscar has just as good a brain as I do. He wouldn't be reckless in his actions."

A warmth filled the room now. For a moment, it really did seem like a discharge of explosive energy was imminent, but the intensity began to even out and become more of a pleasant sensation. It was no different than being in a perfectly warm bed, sleeping within an undeniably comfortable environment.

The only person in the room whose expression dictated otherwise was Gloria, whose face went from spite to fear as she looked upon the brightly-glowing gem. "Errrh…! Stop that! Pon! Get that stone away from them! It's… _ow!_ It's _hurting my eyes!_ "

Only Gloria could acknowledge this, however, as everyone else felt no such discomfort as they gazed upon the glowing gem. Eventually, both Oscar and Tilda stopped speaking their words of magic, and Oscar reached over to Pon. "Step on over here, my good man. Don't worry…the touch of the stone will be comfortably warm to your hand."

" _Don't do it!_ " Gloria yelled out, still shielding herself with a single arm from the glow that was forcing her to wince. "It's a _trick!_ You don't even _know_ them as well as you know me!"

It was these last few words from the frigid-hearted princess that gave Pon a reason to hesitate.

A moment later, however, he resumed his approach to the stone, which Oscar and Tilda dropped into his shaking, outstretched palm. The stone was indeed pleasantly warm as his fingers surrounded it on all sides. The old man's eyes then moved back up to meet Oscar's in his curiosity.

"Only one who has true and everlasting affection for the victim of this enchantment will be able to free her heart from this affliction." The Wizard of Oz gestured to Gloria. "If you still truly love her, only _you_ can do this."

Pon's aged, gray-haired head turned slowly to the suffering princess. He slowly nodded. "Yes…yes, I…I do…" He lifted his free hand up, and he felt the energies from the stone in his other hand flow to the extended one as he began to approach Gloria. "…I…I don't care if I s-stay an old man…so long as I know she can be…herself again…"

Gloria, however, looked visibly resistant to this as she recoiled from Pon's approach. Fortunately, both Bo and the Lion hurried over to firmly hold her in place. "NO!" She protested loudly. "Let me _go!_ Errrhh! Don't you _touch_ me, you _filthy_ old man! This is _treason!_ I'll have you all _imprisoned! PON! PLEEEEAAASE!_ "

Tears flowed freely from Pon's eyes as he placed his shaking, glowing hand gently against that area of her breast where the young princess's frigid heart was. A surge of explosive power suddenly traveled from the stone right to the other hand, going through the hand to strike right at the enchanted heart. Gloria squinted her eyes shut, and her mouth opened wide to utter a loud and hateful scream…

…but no such scream emerged. She ironically froze in place as Pon, his senses jarred by the surge of explosive energy, dropped to the ground. The surge was far too much for his old body to be able to endure all at once, and he lay lifelessly upon the ground as Gloria's magically-enchanted heart, at long last, began thawing. Every limb of the young princess tensed hard, her own senses jarred by the impact of the ruby's energy, as the process continued.

Eyes were wide among all who witnessed this. They could all clearly see the heart within Gloria's breast, which was now glowing brightly as it went from the glacial blueness of its once-frigid state to become a much more healthy and vibrant red. Naturally, Gloria's appearance softened now, becoming much more beautiful, even if her royal dress remained harsh in its design. Her pale skin slowly returned to a healthy human color, and every vein in her body lost their visible blueness as a fresh flow of overpoweringly warm and natural blood dissolved the icy ichor that had contributed to her perpetually unnatural behavior.

The glow slowly subsided, and Gloria's senses gradually returned. She looked a little confused as the princess's recovering eyes slowly scanned her surroundings.

Dorothy was the first to speak as she took a step towards the princess. "Gloria?"

The lovely young girl's eyes now fell on the anthropomorphic dog that had addressed her. Despite her previous condition, Gloria found her appearance familiar. "D-Dorothy? Is…is that your name?"

Dorothy beamed as she nodded, her eyes wide. "Yes! Yes, it is!"

Gloria's eyes then went below her, and she saw the old man that had broken the wicked enchantment lying still upon the ground next to her, and a look of total horror now played on the face of the princess. "Pon? _PON?_ "

This sent the Wizard hurrying over to the old man's unmoving form in his own immediate concern. "Oh, dear me…I hope that shock wasn't too much for him to recover from!"

The Scarecrow now had his own expression of horror. "Wait a minute…are you telling us that what he just did could have _killed_ him?"

"Nonsense! We are in _Oz,_ good Scarecrow! No one can die here! It's just a matter of how long it will be before his senses return." Oscar assured as he continued to check up on the old man, feeling at his vital areas to estimate his recovery. "Hmmm…as I suspected. The surge that went through him was quite dramatically intense. He could be unconscious for some time…" He then looked to Gloria with a reassuring expression, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. "…but rest assured, my dear, that your beloved will indeed regain his senses."

A now smiling Gloria nodded in her relief. Tears formed in her eyes, her expression quickly dissolving to sorrowful regret, as they went back down to Pon's unconscious form. "I must have done awful things…they _told_ me this was what they did to him…and then they started turning everyone to s…" This was all she could lament before collapsing into an open sobbing fit.

Trot loped over to the sullen princess, placing a simian hand on her shoulder. "You weren't yourself. This was all witch magic. _They_ did this to you. Just like it was their magic that turned me and Dorothy into what we are now. But we _beat_ them, Gloria. All the witches. Even Blinkie. Now, we just have to find what we need to make everyone else better."

Gloria glanced curiously to Dorothy, as if to confirm what Trot had said. A smiling Dorothy nodded in confirmation, her ears raised up high. "Where…where are they?" Gloria then asked.

"We have them in a cellar of one of these cottages, under round-the-clock guard." Bo responded. "We're not letting them out of our sight, either. Blinkie was shrunk to the size of a doll, and she lost her ability to cast magic. The six witches who serve her are feeling a little, shall we say, primitive these days. They're wearing enchanted collars that make them act like animals. I can only imagine how they must be treating Blinkie right now."

Gloria finally rose to her feet, her eyes on Bo. "Can we get Pon to my quarters in the castle? Please?"

Bo nodded, smiling. "Of course, your highness."

As the panda bent down to gather up the old man's body, the Lion stepped over to Gloria. "Uh…ya majesty…" the king of the quadling beasts then gestured to another individual that was now regaining consciousness. "…what'cha wantin' us ta do about _dat_ guy?"

Upon seeing the man she knew, right away, to be Goog L'Goo, the adolescent princess's curious expression went dead serious as she stepped over to the adolescent rotter who had quite literally stolen the vibrant youth of the gardener's boy she loved with all her heart. Shade and Brawn picked him up, with tight and furry grips on his arms, as Gloria stopped in front of him.

Goog's eyes fluttered as his vision sharpened, and when he saw that the young princess he wanted as his bride was looking much less frigid, his expression brightened significantly. "Gloria! Why, you…you've been _thawed!_ Such a nasty trick those witches played on you! I tried to tell them how much of a mistake it would be for them to do that to you, but they just _wouldn't listen!_ "

Gloria arched an eyebrow amusedly. "Did you?"

"I did! But that's obviously behind us now, my dearest." Goog laid what he perceived to be his most charming voice on thick, and it actually looked as if Gloria was warming to it by virtue of her expression. "There's something I badly need to tell you, dearest Gloria, but…I can't do that with these flea-bitten beasts holding me so painfully. Um…could you kindly tell them to let me go? Please?"

The Lion quickly and inaudibly whispered a quick note to Gloria from behind. " _Brocius is at da door outside._ "

Although she heard the leonine monarch, her expression did not change. She kept her eyes on the treacherous man in front of her. Gloria's next words took both Shade and Brawn by surprise.

"Let him go."

Both the panther and the bear frowned in confusion at this request.

" _Hey!_ Dis is a command from a princess of Oz!" The Lion sharply reminded the beasts holding Goog. " _Get yer mitts offa dat bum!_ Jus' keep yer eyes on 'im."

Goog's arms were finally released. Shade and Brawn ignored the scowls Goog gave them before the traveling miscreant turned his attention back to Gloria, once again flashing a smile he hoped would be effective. A part of him felt a rush of excitement as he had apparently found his long-awaited moment. "I…I'll just get right to it, my dearest Gloria, now that you're yourself again. I do realize that I have gone so far as to render myself younger than I once was…but it was only because I never, in my long life, have actually experienced genuinely true love. Until, of course, I met you. I also realize that it was for the sake of some silly political gain that King Krewl wanted me to marry you, but…alas! He is nothing more than a stone statue, and of no further concern to either one of us, yes? Give me a chance now, and I will certainly make every effort to be as good as…if not better…than the gardener's boy. I can serve as…as a veritable reflection of all the good you had seen in him. This, I do vow, with all my heart, as I humble myself before you with the purest of hearts and proclaim unto you with perfect love, and perfect trust, and a hope that you and I might truly live happily ever after."

Goog then lowered to a knee. Just about everyone other than Gloria and Goog couldn't help but feel entertained by this pathetic man's attempt at melodrama, but kept their expressions from breaking out into giggle fits as Goog L'Goo rendered his plea for the 40th time.

"My dearest, beloved Gloria…" Goog began, genuinely shaking with anticipation. "…will you marry me?"

Gloria, for her part, feigned a bittersweet expression quite convincingly by contrast as she flashed a happy smile. For a moment, everyone wondered if Gloria was actually going to give this selfish jerk the benefit of a doubt, and accept him at his word as she rubbed a hand, softly, against his right cheek affectionately.

Still showing a convincingly disarming smile, Gloria nodded. "Marry this."

Balling the hand that rubbed the man's face into a fist, Gloria slammed it right into that face as hard as she could, and with all of her might.

Dorothy's ears raised up high, her fluffy tail wagging with wild satisfaction.

And the princess wasn't done, either. Picking Goog up by the collar of his elegant coat, she clobbered the treacherous rotter with three more hard punches, each shot more solid than the last. The raw anger behind those punches was enough to put Goog back into unconsciousness, this time leaving him with a painful reminder of the futility of what would become his final failed attempt at earning Gloria's hand in what would have ultimately become a marriage of mere convenience.

Gloria then walked right up to a relieved Oscar Diggs. " _Please_ tell me you can reverse what he did to Pon."

"If I can help you, let me know, master Diggs." Tilda reminded.

Oscar's expression, however, lowered Dorothy's ears as the Wizard gave his sad answer. "Under the current circumstances, I'm afraid this is beyond my ability alone to reverse. Not even with your help, Tilda. _But,_ we know someone who _can_ …" Dorothy's furry ears raised back up as Oscar spoke these words. "…and the only way we will be able to free Glinda from her current state of petrification is for us to hasten to the Nome Dominions."

"Ya got my Legion here ta keep you an' Pon safe, ya majesty." The Lion assured.

"I'd like to have Goog, and those witches, brought to our more proper dungeons." Gloria remarked. "It should be easier for your Legion to keep them confined there."

"We're on it, your highness." Shade confirmed.

Gloria then turned to Dorothy and her friends. "I wish there was some other way I could help you, but…well, unless you have talent in cooking…"

"I do, but…" she raised her paw-like hands. "…not while I look like _this._ "

"Quite contrarily, there is plenty to eat in the Emerald City. We'll just go back there and revitalize ourselves, and then be northbound to the deadly desert with the carpet we'll need to cross it." Oscar then grasped Gloria's shoulders. "I give you my word of honor, as the great and powerful Wizard of Oz himself, that we shall return and free your people."

Gloria smiled wide. "I look forward to your return, then." She then wrapped her arms around the old man, embracing him in a tight hug. "Thank you so much for all of your help thus far." She then moved to Dorothy, rubbing at her soft, furry pelt as Gloria hugged the former Kansas girl just as tightly. "You especially, Dorothy. I've always wanted to meet you after I heard about what happened to those witch-sisters. You're just as wonderful as they said you were. I don't care if you're a dog or not!"

Dorothy smiled as her tail wagged happily behind her. Gloria's rubbing was compelling her to behave in a canine manner, but she resisted these urges.

"We'll be back, your highness." She reminded as they hugged. "Don't you worry."

The Scarecrow stepped over to Oscar as Dorothy and Gloria hugged. "How did you get here, anyway?"

"The same way we're going to return!" The smiling wizard replied. "By dishpan!"


	12. XII: Into The Nome Dominions

**XII: Into The Nome Dominions**

 **AUTHOR NOTE: Our narrative will be veering into an adaptation of material featured in Baum's second book,** ** _Ozma of Oz_** **, beginning with this chapter. Although there was a mention of Dr. Worley in the previous stories of this series, we're obviously not combining Princess Langwidere with Mombi in this adaptation, as the movie** ** _Return to Oz_** **had done.**

 **I certainly hope, given Langwidere's admittedly disturbing habit, that I can maintain the "T" rating I've given to this story!**

* * *

It was to Betsy Bobbin's relief that there was no sign of any wreckage to serve as evidence of an attack on the dirigible Johnny Dooit had made for her. At the same time, there was no sign of anyone that had been left aboard that vessel either. It seemed logical that if the crew of her namesake vessel were anywhere, they would be somewhere on this landmass they were about to explore, if nowhere else.

Salvo explained one feature of the uniquely-built warboats, and their ability to come ashore without needing a docks area. A pair of large, forward-firing launchers would shoot a pair of large, spiked and multi-hooked anchors out towards the land, which would more often than not dig themselves into a rocky surface or otherwise find a surface to firmly catch upon, and then a pair of large winches needed to be cranked until the boat slid onto the sandy shore. A sturdy ramp would then be brought out to the forecastle area from below decks. It was by way of this ramp that Betsy and all of her shipmates were able to set foot on this quiet beach area of the landmass.

Once Inga's feet touched the soft, wet sand, he heard the voice of the Nome King in his head.

 _Welcome, my little Ingot._ The voice began. _Seek your king out. Let the rocks be your guide, as much as you shall be theirs._

Betsy scanned the general area. The only sounds aside from their own presence was that of the waves crashing around behind them. She figured she would hear the sounds of seagulls flying around, but there were no birds anywhere in the area.

King Rinkitink stepped over to the Oklahoma girl. "I believe some of the crew are getting a bit hungry, my dear Captain. We might want to go foraging for food before we go anywhere else."

"What's with these big marks on the sand?" Bilbil remarked, gazing down at a portion of sand which, true to the goat's word, had been quite visibly scarred.

Coral and Salvo looked curious about this as well as Rinkitink and Betsy turned their attentions to them. Salvo followed the path of the apparent carving, noting that the lines in the sand intersected and formed what looked to be a letter. "Looks like a big 'B'."

Coral saw similar carvings next to this letter, acknowledging the presence of the letter 'E' right next to it.

A few minutes later, they saw that the carvings in the sand…which was apparently impervious to being washed away by the water…formed an ominous message.

"'Beware the Wheelers'?" Rinkitink frowned as he repeated the group's discovered message. "What in the world are Wheelers?"

"Hey! Look!" One of the crewmates ran over to what appeared to be a forest of trees just beyond the sandy edge. "It smells like _food_ over here!"

What the group found hanging from the trees, however, were large metallic shapes with an impression running around its circumference, looking as if they could be opened up. Rinkitink found that the scent of food was stronger as he stepped up to one of the odd growths. As he was just as hungry as the others, he examined the shape's connection to the tree and found that, with some effort, the shape…which he correctly surmised to be a container…could be removed.

As Betsy and the others gathered around the curious monarch, Rinkitink's pudgy fingers firmly gripped the edges of the hard surface and he began to pry the odd, lunchbox-like growth open. With a loud crack, the container opened…

…and, to Rinkitink's surprise, revealed a very tasty-looking meal! The others around him also reacted with amazement as the rotund king grabbed the freshly-cultivated, well-prepared chicken-variety meatstalk sandwich and began devouring it as the others began picking and pulling off the other metallic growths, cracking open their respective finds. Bilbil looked up at one of the metal containers on what the others now called the "lunch pail tree", feeling a bit crestfallen for whatever food he could help himself to within the container he had selected that he, alas, could not reach, nor would he be able to crack open if he did.

It was Betsy Bobbin, however, who noticed Bilbil's crestfallen look and graciously removed the container he had selected from the tree, cracking it open so that she could feed him the fresh carrots that were in the container. There were, apparently, enough carrots to satisfy Bilbil's hunger, in fact.

Coral stepped over to the Oklahoma girl, her own mouth full of food. "You're not hungry?"

Betsy's eyes turned to the tree itself. "Doesn't it seem kinda strange that these lunch pails are givin' us jus' what we like t' eat when we open 'em up?"

"Well, it's _obvious_ that they're _magic_ trees, Betsy." Bilbil responded once he swallowed the carrots in his own mouth. "Why complain? Grab one and take a lunch break. It's not like these trees are being…"

A savage holler of rage, heard a gradual distance away, silenced the entire group.

"…guarded?"

Their eyes directed towards the source of the sound…

…and they saw a line of angry-looking humanoids along a ridge in the distance. Dressed in weird and somewhat decrepit-looking clothes, they stood in an almost simian manner, their hands and feet upon the ground. One of them broke off from the group, but this particular individual did not walk so much as he was _rolling_ forward. As he got closer, Betsy was able to see wheels where his hands and feet should be.

Wheelers, Betsy quietly surmised.

"Um…hi." The Oklahoma girl nervously began as the unpleasant-looking wheeler continued to scowl angrily at her. "I'm Betsy Bobbin."

"No you're not. You're _dead._ " The wheeler growled. " _All_ of you. These are _our_ trees!"

"But…we were hungry." Betsy reasoned. "We've been out on th' seas for days! We needed food! Won't th' trees grow new lunch pails?"

This only made the wheeler more angry. "We'll _crush you under our wheels!_ " He then burst forward with surprising speed in his sudden attack…

…and Betsy Bobbin's circus-trained reflexes fired up, allowing her to avoid the attack completely. She somersaulted once in mid-air before landing. The wheeler tried a few more angry charges, but Betsy easily dodged these attempts.

The last of these angry charges was followed by a solid and unexpected strike courtesy of Bilbil's hard, horned head. The goat stood defensively in front of Betsy as the wheeler reeled back from the head-butt, briefly dizzying the wheeled attacker as he returned to his upright stance.

The frustrated wheeler's eyes flashed with fury as he screamed out the word that sent his fellow wheelers rolling hatefully towards the rest of Betsy's group. "ATTAAAAAAAAACK!"

The other wheelers angrily repeated the cry as they began rolling towards Betsy's shipmates, many of whom were quite intimidated by the odd-looking humanoids as they rapidly closed on their position.

Far too many of them, Betsy thought. _Time to go._

Betsy looked to the rest of her shipmates and motioned in the opposite direction. " _Let's get outta here!_ " She yelled.

As Betsy and her friends began their wild and hasty retreat, the Oklahoma girl hoped that the Wizard of Oz might either send a mental message of some kind offering advice, or perhaps provide another magical means of assisting her current situation. As the wheelers would be on them within moments no matter how fast they ran, sorcerous assistance could very well be the only way her group would survive this.

As he had done so many times before, Rinkitink went right onto the back of his steed…Bilbil…in his efforts not only to travel around, but to assist in a hasty retreat. The round-bodied king, however, had two unopened lunch pails under his arms, adding to his already considerable weight. By consequence, Bilbil was barely able to keep the big man's weight(although carrying Rinkitink by himself was never a problem for the surprisingly strong goat) as the pair of them attempted their escape from the pursuing wheelers.

One of the wheelers screamed in a spirited manner as his voice went from the ground to the skies. His leap would easily drop him right into the frightened, fleeing crowd of intruders…

…but when he landed, he felt the large wheels that were his hands and feet strike the soft soil of the natural ground rather than solid flesh and bone! This immediately mystified him, as he knew the crowd he had leaped towards was thick enough for him to have crushed at least _one_ of these fleeing intruders.

It turned out that these fleeing intruders were now passing _through_ him, like ghosts!

Such was the effect transmitted by a lone, slim individual standing in the distance wearing a large, hooded gray robe with a decorative pattern of black felt on its outer surface. As she ran, Betsy caught sight of this individual, who was holding out a long wooden staff towards them. This staff's golden, spherical tip was glowing quite brightly with a white light, perhaps serving as a beacon. This individual, whose head was concealed by a mask, was also gesturing for Betsy and her crew to rush over to where the stranger was standing.

Betsy also noticed how odd she now looked as well. Although she otherwise felt fine and was functioning normally, she noticed that she had a more transparent appearance to her. The others had also stopped to gaze upon themselves, and each other, all of them sharing the same transparent visage. The wheeler that had leapt upon them kept trying to strike at them and roll over them, but he continued to pass harmlessly through them every time.

Betsy and her crew then heard a voice screaming at them from the direction of the stranger. "DON'T STOP!" The distant voice was clearly female. " _KEEP GOING!_ "

With one last look to the confused wheelers, who had also stopped in their bewilderment, the fleeing group resumed their dash towards the stranger in the distance ahead of them. As Bilbil continued his own retreat, he and Rinkitink caught the word "ghostmaker", which was muttered by some of the growling, frustrated wheelers as they watched the intruders continue to distance themselves from them.

Once they reached the cloaked woman, they slowed to a halt, catching their breath as the stranger's staff lowered, and the tip's bright glow abated. The group's transparent visages solidified to a more visible and tangible clarity once the staff's magic effect abated.

Once Betsy was a little less fatigued, she stepped in front of the robed stranger, wiping sweat from her brow. "Awful kind o' you t' help us, Miss. I'm Betsy Bobbin. Who're you?"

The robed, hooded stranger's free hand…a slim and effeminate one…went to the hood of her cloak, and she carefully pulled it back to expose what turned out to be a quite beautiful face, framed by a full head of golden blond hair. Striking blue eyes regarded Betsy kindly as the woman…who looked to be in her late thirties…smiled pleasantly to the Oklahoma girl.

"My name is Marie." The woman softly began. "Marie Evangeline. Pleased to meet you, Betsy."

Betsy smiled back. "Thank you for helpin' us with that. We came here by sea. We're lookin' for friends of ours."

Marie tilted her head curiously. "Were they on a ship that came from the skies?"

"Yes! Yes! That's them!" Betsy excitedly confirmed. "Do y' know if they're all right?"

"When I scryed its descent to the ground, I did see its crew disembark with a large metal man, a mule, and a strange-looking girl made of a patchwork quilt among them." Marie replied. "Although they all looked like they had been through a difficult trial or two, none of them appeared to be seriously hurt."

Betsy heaved a sigh of relief over the confirmation, moreso for the fact that Captain Fyter, Hank, and Scraps were all okay.

"But then, I saw them speaking to one of…" Marie noticed Inga among Betsy's group. "…well, one of _your_ kind." The cloaked woman added with a touch of disdain as her eyes fell upon the nome visage Inga had been given. "They followed him into the dominions beneath Ev. I'm afraid they may never be seen again, Betsy."

Betsy frowned in her surprise. "Why do y' say that?"

"Because three of my friends went down to speak with the Nome King. To appeal with him in the release of the royal family of Ev." Marie explained. "This was about a week ago. Everitas was the first to go. When we lost contact with him, Neville and Corin traced his trail. Told me to stay behind. Now, it's just me, and I'm running out of assurances to the people of Evna."

Betsy nodded in acknowledgement as she listened. "So we're in th' land of Ev now?"

Marie confirmed this with a single nod of her head.

Betsy then turned to Inga. "An' how far are we from th' nomes?"

The gray-skinned, white-haired young man shrugged. "If we're in Ev, then…well, it's…straight down. I…I can feel them beneath us. They're all over the place."

"Yes, the Nome Dominions are quite vast." Marie confirmed. "But? Perhaps your nome friend there can show you another way in. I'm sure he'll probably lead you to one anyway."

Betsy couldn't help but pick up on the woman's sense of distrust for Inga. Fortunately for the young prince, the Oklahoma girl wasn't the only one who noticed this.

"Marie…" Bilbil began. "…Inga's situation is, well, unique. He's not what he appears to be."

Inga sighed out in his clear irritation. "Here we go again. How many times do I have to tell you? I'm a NOME. I've always _been_ a nome!"

"Who apparently spent a good portion of his life…since his birth, in fact…living among humans on the island of Pingaree." Rinkitink added. "He is actually _Prince_ Inga, the young son of King Kitticut of Pingaree and the rightful heir to that land's throne."

"But I'm still a nome!" Inga then added.

Marie frowned in her confusion. "And King Kitticut is…a nome?"

Both Rinkitink and Bilbil slowly shook their heads in perfect unison.

Marie slowly nodded in acknowledgement, still a little mystified over these facts. "Uh…right. Well…either way, I'm sure that Prince Inga here should be your best asset in getting into the Nome Dominions in a manner other than the front entrance."

Betsy now looked curious. "What's wrong with goin' through th' front entrance?"

"A giant construct guards the entrance doors. It is armed with a _very_ large mallet." Marie answered. "Few have been able to get past that construct without being flattened by that mallet."

Betsy was deep in thought as Marie spoke, her eyes going between the spellcaster and her nervous-looking crew, all of whom were visibly in need of a break from all the excitement.

"What's 'Evna', Marie?" Betsy then asked.

"That's the capital city of the land of Ev." Marie responded. "It's not too far from here. If you wish, I can take us all there in the blink of an eye. You all look like you could use a bit of rest."

As Marie spoke, Inga could hear the Nome King's voice in his head.

 _She doesn't trust you, little Ingot._ Roquat began. _Can you imagine the fear and resentment you're going to experience if you go to Evna with these so-called friends of yours? Among the nomes, all shall respect you, and none shall judge you. I shall personally see to it. You will have more friends than any living being shall ever have in their lifetimes._

Being the nome that he was, Inga could not sense any passages…hidden or otherwise…leading to the vast caverns that he was able to sense below. No secret in-roads anywhere near where they were all standing. He figured that such passages were more likely to be found near mountainous regions.

He couldn't help but consider Roquat's words, as well.

Betsy, on the other hand, considered Marie's offer. She didn't feel that a prolonged break period would be very wise, seeing as how she very much wanted to be reunited with Hank, Fyter, and the others. She wanted to be assured that they were safe and sound.

A glance to her crew, on the other hand, compelled her to give a more considerate response to the blond wizardess.

"I think my crew is more in need of a rest." Betsy responded. "Can they go back with you t' Evna? I wanna go look for a way into those d'minions."

Inga sounded eager as he spoke. "I can help you find a way in, Betsy. I'm going with you."

"And wherever Prince Inga goes?" Rinkitink added. "Bilbil and I will be going!"

Coral and Salvo stepped over to the Oklahoma girl. A look of concern was on Coral's face. "Isn't there any way we could help you, Betsy?"

"You an' Salvo were a really big help t' me on th' warboat, Coral." Betsy replied. "I think y'all deserve a break, though. I can't stop an' rest right now. I have t' find out what happen'd t' my oth'r friends."

"We'll watch over the crew while you're gone, Betsy." Salvo assured. "Don't forget us, though."

"I won't!" Betsy gave Salvo a hug, and did likewise with Coral. "I'll come back. I _promise!_ "

Betsy received similar well-wishings, and advisories to be careful, from the other Pingaree citizens as she went to each of them in turn to thank them for their aid. Some asked if they could join Betsy, but she was able to talk them out of it through a bit of rationale.

"I do beg your pardon, good lady." Rinkitink stepped over to Marie. "But…might there be any more places that we should not be trespassing upon? Or that we can just pass through without being chased off?"

Marie smiled. "Most communities in Ev are quiet farming zones, and they're not as, well, territorial as those of the wheelers. Even the city of Evna is open to outsiders unless their intentions are less than cordial."

"Why do th' wheel'rs look th' way they do?" Betsy asked.

"They encountered a wicked witch from the land of Oz named Mombi." Marie answered. "They paid a price, so to speak, so that they could better protect their discovery of the lunch trees. They had been complaining of being tired of merely running after those who stole from those trees, so Mombi altered the hands and feet of every single man, woman and child born to the Lord Wiel, who first discovered the lunch trees. They all turned on Wiel when he himself tried hoarding food from one of the trees. Now, they're just a leaderless gang of territorial ruffians, and a dangerous one at that. We always advise travelers to stay clear of their land unless one of the wizards of Ev…or one of the armored battalions of the Kingdom of Ix…can escort them through."

"Did they grow those trees to begin with?" Bilbil curiously asked.

Marie shook her head, smiling. "As I said, it was a discovery. The Lord Wiel claimed territoriality over that region when the land of Ev was ruled by the King Evoldo. His proclamations are still the rule of the land, even though he took his own life, so there's not much anyone can do unless the royal family of Ev is found."

"Hmmm…doesn't the land have a backup ruler, so to speak?" Rinkitink wondered aloud. "A Regent, perhaps?"

"Well…we _do_ have a Regent…" Marie's tone was tinged with disdain as she responded. "…but the only thing she truly cares about is her, uh… _unpleasant_ sense of vanity. All Langwidere does is stay in her salon day in, day out, caring about nothing other than herself, and her various, uh…appearances."

Rinkitink arched an eyebrow. "Ah. Bit of a slob, eh? Unkempt hair?"

Marie's tone was firm in her two-word reply. " _Don't ask._ "

"What happened to the royal family?" Inga asked.

"An' why did Evoldo kill himself?" Betsy inquired.

"The answer is the same for both questions. The Nome King." Marie replied. "Evoldo surrendered his wife and his ten children to Roquat, apparently in exchange for immortality. He came to regret his decision, though. He knew his bargain was irreversible, though, since Roquat is a particularly powerful monarch who grants the wishes of others for an often terrible price. One of the provisions of his immortality was that he should never come into contact with ocean waters, or he would completely dissolve. That's just what happened when he cast himself into the nonestic ocean from a high cliff overlooking the seas."

"He sounds like an awfully selfish ruler." Rinkitink's own tone was disdainful as he spoke. "I don't like him one bit."

"Neith'r do I." Betsy added.

"No one did. He was a particularly cruel and harsh ruler." Marie remarked. "Were it not for the magic and the careful influence of Everitas over Evoldo, the populace would have been far more unpleasant than those of the wheelers. They were relieved when they confirmed Evoldo's passing, but their relief turned to concern when Everitas and my other two friends went missing."

"And it's not like the Regent is taking much action, is she?" Bilbil snorted in derision. He then looked to Betsy. "We should rescue the royal family, if we can."

Inga heard Roquat's voice in his head upon hearing the goat's suggestion. _They will be given the opportunity to try. You should find their ultimately futile efforts most amusing to observe, little Ingot._

"We'll need to be _really_ careful if we do that." Inga noted, thinking on the Nome King's words to him.

"Your friends look tired and hungry." Marie observed, glancing at the idling crew of the warboat. "I should get them to Evna now. I would relocate you to a mountain face, but…"

"Don't worry, Marie." Inga interjected, smiling. "I'll find us a way in. You go ahead."

Marie nodded, smiling back. "Very well then. If you can find my three friends…Neville, Corin, and Everitas…while you are down there, I would be most grateful. The royal family of Ev is far more important, though. Please be careful in your journey, and I wish you and your friends the best of luck."

"Thank you for all your help, Marie." Betsy bowed her head respectfully, smiling. "An' thank you for tendin' t' my shipmates."

With one last curtsey of respect from the blond spellcaster, she turned to the group of tired and hungry shipmates and began casting an enchantment large enough to swallow them all up in a flash of soft, harmless silver light. Their images seemed to freeze in time, after which they faded out of sight completely.

Lowering himself to the ground, Rinkitink looked to one of the two unopened containers he had taken from the lunch pail tree. With wide, greedy eyes and a somewhat ravenous smile, he began to pry it open…

…only to feel a sharp, hard impact at his back which felt very much like a familiar head butt. "OW! Bilbil! That hurt!"

" _Save_ it, your highness." The goat firmly remarked. "That could be our only source of food on this trip. We don't know how long we're going to be walking."

Inga was already scanning the surroundings. "The closest way in may not be too far from here." He then motioned to the others. "C'mon. Let's get moving."

Betsy hurried up next to Inga as the silver-haired nome began walking. Rinkitink mounted Bilbil once again and the goat clopped just behind them.

 _Good, my little nome. Very good._ Inga smiled, hearing the voice of the Nome King in his head, and appreciating his nurturing tone. _Once we…take care of your friends, I'm going to make sure your future among us will be a very happy and contented one._

Inga found merit to this notion, seeing as how there were more than a few times the little boy wanted to go out and play with children his age when he was younger, rather than be caught up in learning so many boring and seemingly needless lessons in royal etiquette. He never had much interest in politics to begin with. He never imagined himself becoming that kind of person.

Perhaps, Inga thought to himself, the Nome King could provide him with the kind of childhood that was denied him by his own father.

 _Mark my words, Ingot._ Roquat's voice assured, perhaps in answer to his thinking. _You are going to enjoy being one of us._

* * *

Dorothy's ears raised up high as her moist black canine nose picked up on the scent of the delicious plate of fresh food Jellia Jamb brought in for her as the team that would be going to the Nome Dominions with Dorothy, Oscar and Trot made their preparations. The Scarecrow had to help Oscar find Ozma's magic carpet, and the Lion had to advise his subjects back in the Quadling Forest accordingly, establishing an interim ruler in not only his absence, but that of the Hungry Tiger as well. A somewhat headstrong, but charismatic wolf named Lupus would earn this temporary distinction.

The canine girl licked around the edges of her furry mouth in anticipation of the meal she would shortly be savoring, but a thought occurred to her then. "Uh…Jellia, I…I hope you won't mind, but…" She brought up her paw-like hands. "…well, I'm not used to holding forks and knives with hands like these."

Jellia smiled as she settled the plate in front of the furry girl. "I won't mind at all, Dorothy. You are a friend, after all. No matter _what_ you are." She ran a hand over Dorothy's soft head of canine fur as she spoke, and she could not help but crane her head forward for more of the wonderful feelings Jellia's petting brought her.

A sharp pair of clicks from Jellia's fingers, however, brought Dorothy out of this canine haze. She then brought up a fork full of food. "Down the hatch now, dear."

The canine girl opened her fanged mouth wide, allowing the palace's head maid to deposit the meal portion into Dorothy's mouth. "Gooood girl." Jellia remarked as her now furry friend began chewing on the soft and perfectly-cooked meatstalk meal portions.

"You seem to be a beacon for nasty witchcraft as of late, Dorothy." Jellia observed as she fed the canine girl another forkful of food. "Don't you want to reconsider Glinda's offer to teach you magic? Maybe you could become the new Good Witch of the East. You're already a national hero, after all. You could become Munchkinland's strongest protector."

Dorothy shook her furry head, however, as she chewed and swallowed her food. "I'm honestly not interested in learning magic, Jellia. I'm too concerned over what that might do to me in the long run. What if I become no different from the Wicked Witch of the East? What if I become someone far worse? I don't want to take that risk."

"Oh, I don't think you're the kind of person that would become anyone nearly as bad as the East Witch, Dorothy." Jellia fed the furry girl another portion of her meal as she spoke. "You're far too selfless and sweet."

"Learning magic might change that though, Jellia." Dorothy warily noted. "Besides, I couldn't see the potential for magic in someone who's just a farmgirl. That's why I suggested that Oscar become Glinda's apprentice in my stead. He's got much more potential than I do."

"True." Jellia admitted, placing another forkful of food in Dorothy's mouth. "Even if he does show off his sorcery more often than he should. I wish he could have been able to change you back, though. Being this way must be a little tough on you."

"Oh, it's not _that_ bad." Dorothy admitted.

"That's what you said when you were a patchwork girl." Jellia noted. "And then again, when you were a munchkin."

"But don't you see, though? It's like something Auntie Em used to tell me. 'If life gives you lemons, you make lemonade'. She makes really good lemonade, too, but…that's not the point." She rose to her padded feet and stepped away from the table as she reveled in her empowering thoughts. "Let those wicked ol' witches turn me into whatever they want. I'll just make the best of my situation and show 'em I can turn it into a strength. Even if I can't get changed back, I think I could grow to like being a dog!"

Jellia had to admit that this was a risky, scary thought, but she made an observation against this. "As long as you're still _you,_ Dorothy."

"Well, can't animals in Oz speak?" Dorothy shrugged, smiling. "I bet I could have a _lot_ of fun being what I am now!"

 _I could spend the whole day playin',  
_ _and maybe do some bayin',  
_ _it's not so tough a slog…_

 _Let the witches have their gloating!  
To my friends, I'd be doting  
if I must remain a dog!_

 _Chase a cat or just go fetchin',  
_ _or curl up after stretchin',  
_ _and nap upon a log…_

 _Won't be barkin', I'll be talkin'  
_ _as you take me for a walkin'  
_ _if I must remain a dog!_

 _Can't you see, the company, that I'd give Toto too?  
He was the only dog in Oz, now there'd be two!  
_ _This isn't RRRUFF! So don't be blue!_

 _Ev'rytime they have me changin',  
_ _I'll do some rearrangin'  
_ _and keep my dialogue…_

 _But for now, my tail's a-wavin',  
_ _and a pettin', I'll be cravin',  
_ _if I must remain a dog!_

As she had been dancing around in the recitation of her rationale, Dorothy ended up sitting, canine-style, on the ground. She smiled as Jellia picked up the unfinished plate of food.

Jellia shook her head as she stabbed another portion of meatstalk meat with the fork and placed it into Dorothy's open mouth. "You make it sound so enviable…but someday, you may find yourself in a position where your mind isn't your own, Dorothy. That kind of magic could even turn you against your own friends."

Dorothy lowered her head slightly, her ears lowering as her furry face now had a sullen expression. There was no denying Jellia's wisdom. "I know. I…I might not always be so lucky." She raised her head back up. "I wasn't even myself when Blinkie changed me."

Jellia put one last fork full of food in Dorothy's mouth before setting the empty dish aside. The head maid then ran a hand, slowly and gently, over the canine girl's head once again. "Don't feel too gloomy, though. There _is_ merit to what you're saying. I'm just reminding you to be careful is all. According to Oscar, you defeated those witches anyway, but there may be spellcasters in the Nome Dominions too."

Dorothy nodded, smiling with half-lidded eyes as she savored the head maid's petting. "I'll be careful, Jellia. Thank you."

A knock at the dining room door redirected the attentions of both Dorothy and Jellia, and their eyes fell upon a feminine face made of reinforced tin.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Nimmie Amee remarked, smiling meekly.

"Not at all, Empress. I was just feeding Dorothy here." Jellia responded. "I imagine you'll be occupying the throne room seat while Oscar is away, as before?"

"Actually, I convinced him and Tilda to remain in the Royal Palace." Nimmie replied. "I will be joining the party in his stead. I'd really like to contribute to the effort to free my husband. I've had my fill of sitting around on a throne that isn't mine. As much as Oscar is eager to try and train Tilda in magic while we're away, I'm eager for some action."

Dorothy rose to her padded feet, smiling. "We'd be honored to have you join us then, Empress Nimmie."

"The carpet is ready and I have Trot, the Scarecrow, and the Lion waiting for us in the Tin Carriage outside." Nimmie noted. "We need to get underway at once."

"Right behind you, your highness!" The eager canine girl quickly moved to follow the Tin Empress, giving Jellia a farewell wave as she moved.

As the shining, magnificently-designed, multi-wheeled and steam-powered tin carriage began moving, the Scarecrow shared his research with the group as an armored winkie soldier kept the vehicle moving.

"From what little we know of the Nome Dominions, it's going to be a challenge just to get in." The straw-stuffed advisor explained. "There's a huge iron guard armed with a large mallet at the other end of the bridge passage leading to the doors that open into the dominions."

"S-so if we're not careful, we're gonna get splatted?" The Lion looked a little nervous now. "Uh…ain't…ain't dere _anudda_ way in?"

The Scarecrow shrugged. "Sorry, your majesty. It's the only way in that's openly known."

"And that's the way _we're_ gonna get in." Trot firmly remarked, raising a simian fist for emphasis as she looked to the Lion. "The Legion of Courage should _never_ back down from a challenge!"

The Lion grinned meekly. In his uncertainty regarding this potential threat, his cowardice was beginning to manifest. "Yeah, but…b-but if we could all get _splatted_ …"

Dorothy placed a padded hand on the Lion's furry shoulder. "It may not be that bad. We haven't even _seen_ this iron guard yet." She then turned her head to the Scarecrow. "Can we communicate with this guard?"

The straw-stuffed advisor shrugged, smiling. "Unknown. The only other thing I know about it is that it was made by a pair of inventors calling themselves Smith & Tinker. It was one of their two greatest creations before they, well, passed away."

Trot tilted her simian head curiously. "What was the other one?"

"A mechanical man of some kind." The Scarecrow answered.

The group felt the tin carriage begin to slow its pace. Craning her head curiously out of one of the passenger area's side windows, Dorothy confirmed that they were now near the edge of the dreaded border region many in Oz referred to as the Deadly Desert. The warning sign near the edge clearly advised living beings not to set foot unto the soil, lest they themselves be quite literally turned into sand.

Nimmie Amee, however, took a few steps into the sandy wastes as the others disembarked. She then stepped further in, perhaps getting a sense for a proper path for the group to travel in their approach to the Dominions.

Her joints creaked as the former munchkin girl turned and stepped back onto the Gillikin Country soil. Nimmie then went to the rear storage area of the tin carriage to pull out Ozma's magic carpet, which didn't seem terribly large in its rolled-up state. Certainly not large enough to cover the distance between the Gillikin Country edge and that of the land of Ev!

Nevertheless, Nimmie rolled one end of the wide carpet out towards the desert edge. The carpet was certainly wide enough for the entire group to step upon, and those who were organic in nature certainly looked inescapably nervous as they began walking behind the tin Empress, beginning their trek across the sandy wastes.

When they were all on the carpet, Dorothy noticed that both the north and south ends of the carpet had curled inward, and the carpet seemed to crawl along the surface of the soft sands like the treads of a tank. Those who needed to seemed to be able to breathe normally, as well, as they continued their progress across the Deadly Desert. Visibility remained relatively poor, however, as the desert sands whipped around them, obscuring their sight considerably. Those who required breath also looked quite nervous as they continued to follow the tin empress. Dorothy's padded hand had a firm and reassuring grasp on the Lion's quivering paw as they moved, although she too could not hide her own urge to quietly whine softly, her furry ears lowered, as she looked around her.

Nimmie, however, kept moving forward in a bold and undaunted manner, perhaps establishing a straight-line path, knowing it would at least lead to the other side. She had thought about just racing across the sands with the tin carriage, but such was her reasoning for stepping into the sands upon coming out of the carriage. She found that the terrain was much too soft for the vehicle to effectively traverse across. Not without some manner of enchantment to make its progress easier, anyway.

Dorothy's canine ears rose up a little when Nimmie spoke her next words. "I see the edge of the desert! It's not far!"

A few minutes later, the front of the carpet finally rolled onto the grassy terrain of the land of Ev. Nimmie rolled up the carpet and hefted it onto her shoulder as the others scanned the terrain of what appeared to be a large expanse of healthy green grass. The pleasant climate was not much different from Oz, save for a slightly thicker cover of billowy white clouds.

The group could see a couple of settlements in the far but visible distance, too, and Dorothy figured these were farms of some sort. She could see the familiar shapes of barns near the houses, and there were crop fields near many of these houses.

"Wow." Dorothy's ears raised as she took it all in, her eyes wide in her fascination. "Munchkins would _adore_ this kind of land."

"You would know, wouldn't you?" The Scarecrow smiled, scratching behind one of the canine girl's fluffy ears. "Having been one of them?"

Trot frowned in her curiosity. "What's a munchkin?"

"Oh, you'd like them, Trot." Dorothy assured to the simian girl. "They're a very nice and a very hard-working race of people who inhabit the eastern lands of Oz."

"Dorothy's their national hero, too." The lion added. "Dey thought she was a witch when dey first met 'er, but…well, Dorothy just happen'd ta be in da house dat dropped down on dat nasty ol' Wicked Witch of da East. Some of 'em still think she's a witch."

"And a _good_ one at that." The Scarecrow added.

Nimmie couldn't help but offer a familiar line of inquiry. "Have you thought about becoming a good witch, Dorothy? Perhaps get a bit of training in magic by Glinda, or Locasta?"

As the Scarecrow expected, the canine girl shook her head. "The Wizard is far better at magic than I could ever be. I'd rather just be known for being, well, me."

Nimmie smiled, as did the Scarecrow. "No matter what you are." The tin empress softly added.

Dorothy smiled back, feeling a bit bashful. "We…we should get underway." She leveled a padded index finger…which, like her other furry fingers, had a small black claw at its tip…towards a tall, narrow building stretching into the sky. "Maybe we can start there."

With everyone in mutual agreement, they began to move towards the structure. The lion positioned himself to Dorothy's right as they moved. "Ya doin' da Legion proud, kiddo." He mused to the canine girl, smiling.

Dorothy smiled back. "So is Trot. I hope we can find her friend."

The lion nodded. He then confided with his now-anthropomorphic friend from Kansas in a tone he hoped Trot wouldn't be able to hear. "Whaddya tink mighta happen'd to 'im?"

Dorothy thought on this. Her own tone was discreet as well, and Trot didn't seem to notice as they spoke. "Well…I figure maybe he's among the stone statues in Jinxland, so he should be safe. Wherever he is."

"Trot said her buddy had a wood'n peg on one o' his legs." The lion confided. "No one could find any old guys fittin' dat description."

Dorothy shrugged. "Maybe he was turned into something we couldn't find."

"Once we drop dat stone spell, I'll have da whole land turned inside out ta find dat guy." The lion assured. "We'll work night an' day if we hafta."

"If I can help out as a dog, you'll have my help too…my king." Dorothy noted, lowering her head humbly in her royal acknowledgement.

Upon seeing this acknowledgement, the lion couldn't help but smile thoughtfully, subtly shaking his head.

Dorothy picked up on this, and she tilted her head in curiosity, a slight smile on her furry lips. "What? What's on your mind?"

"Well…" He began, but after a moment of silence, he visibly discarded the thought. "…doh, it's nuttin', kid. Let's just…"

"No, no." Dorothy placed a padded hand on the lion's shoulder as she softly spoke. "Go on. You can tell me."

The lion sighed again. "Well…I…I guess I had dis idea where I'm sittin' where I usually sit when I'm bein' king a' da forest…an' I got da Tiger ta my right, an'…an'…"

"And me on your left?" Dorothy smiled more. "The king's royal dog advisor? Maybe even…a royal liaison to the princess Ozma? I could represent your entire kingdom while you stay in the Quadling Forest and…and rule over all its great beasts, like the mighty king you rightfully deserve to be."

The lion frowned curiously as he angled his head to Dorothy. "Y' really wouldn't mind dat, would ya?"

"If I had to stay this way for the rest of my life, I would be _honored_ to serve under you, your majesty." Dorothy earnestly replied.

"Well…tell ya what." The lion remarked, after a moment of thought. "We'll cross dat bridge when we come to it. Sound good?"

"As you wish…" Dorothy bowed her head reverently once again, smiling pleasantly. "…my king."

The lion couldn't help but chuckle bashfully in response to Dorothy's subsequent giggling as they continued their progress towards the structure.

They were face to face with a couple of tough-looking, polearm-bearing guards when they got there. They flanked the base of a long, wide staircase leading to a single door as Nimmie stepped over to cordially greet both of them.

One of the guards nodded once and spoke sharply. "What business have you with the Regent of the land of Ev?"

"We seek guidance." Nimmie replied. "Might the Regent be willing to aid in this regard?"

The guards gave a glance to the rest of the group behind Nimmie. They all flashed cordial smiles, a couple of them waving non-human hands.

The guards then gave odd looks to each other.

The guard Nimmie had been speaking to then turned his head back to the tin Empress. "Follow us, please."

They then turned to ascend the stairs. Nimmie gestured for the rest of the group to follow.

Scents were pleasantly fragrant as the group followed the guards through the double doors at the top of the long and narrow stairway. They were then led into a large and very lavish-looking salon, the walls of which were lined with identically-sized and numbered cabinets. A single divan, a coffee table, and one other door on the opposite side of the room could be seen in here as well.

"Please do not touch the cabinets while you are here." One of the guards warned as they moved to the entrance door to the salon and remained there, keeping a wary eye on Nimmie and her friends as they waited.

Once he was able to assess the room's interior, the lion quietly stepped behind Dorothy to confide his opinion to her, whispering into one of her canine ears.

"Somethin's not right here." He quietly hissed.

"I was thinking the same thing." Dorothy warily whispered back.

The lone door opposite the entrance to the salon opened a quiet moment later, and a slender-bodied woman wearing what looked to be a flashy and regal-looking ballroom gown emerged from the room beyond the door. At about six feet, she was a relatively tall woman who wore a ribbon of pure velvet around her neck. Her shoulder-length auburn hair fell in ringlets around a very pleasant and sweet-looking face that flashed a warm and inviting smile…

…but when her striking, sky blue eyes fell upon the group of visitors the guards had brought in, her smile dissolved. She now looked troubled as her gaze lingered for another quiet moment as her visitors smiled back at her. The woman then let out a loud sigh, apparently expressing some manner of vivid frustration, and then stepped back into the room she had left, closing the door behind her.

Expressions of outright puzzlement were now on the faces of Nimmie, Dorothy, and all their friends as they looked to one another.

The lion looked to the guards curiously. "Was it somethin', um, we _didn't_ say?"

The guards, however, kept quiet. Their expressions remained neutral.

Nimmie turned to the guards as well. "There's no need for all this, you know. All we need are directions to the entrance to the Nome Dominions. I'm in the understanding that there is a large iron…"

The door opened once again, interrupting the tin empress and re-directing her attention back to the opposite door. The eyes of all visitors, however, widened over what they were now seeing.

It was the same tall and slender-bodied woman, and she wore the same regal-looking ballroom gown. In fact, everything below the velvet ribbon she wore around her neck was the same woman that had initially acknowledged them upon stepping out to greet them for the first time.

It was everything _above_ the ribbon, however, that was different.

She now had a head of hair that was tightly wrapped back into a bun behind her, and her face looked a little more harsh compared to the pleasant, auburn-haired appearance that had initially greeted them. In fact, the face reminded Dorothy a little more of the menacing green face of the deceased Wicked Witch of the West.

And unlike the woman's last face, this one was not smiling at all, making an already tense situation a bit more perplexing.

When the woman finally spoke, it was in a low and firm voice. Her eyes were on Nimmie as she spoke. "May I help you and your…" she glanced at Nimmie's group with a bit of disdain showing on her face. "…friends?"

Nimmie caught this, and her head squeaked to the side curiously. "Is there something wrong with my…friends?"

The woman now grinned. "Well…they're not exactly _normal,_ are they?"

The Scarecrow shrugged, cordially smiling. "We are who we are! There's no way around that! We didn't come here to cause any trouble, though. All we want is directions."

"You are unquestionably a most _unusual_ group of visitors." The woman huffed. She then turned her inquisitive gaze to Dorothy. "Although I imagine without all that fur, and…well, everything that sets you apart from the average human, you could be a most lovely-looking young girl."

"Well…actually, I _was_ a human girl." The canine girl responded. She then gestured to Trot. "So was my other friend here. The both of us were turned into what we are now by wicked witches."

The woman seemed disinterested in this as she started walking towards her divan. "Ah."

"Uh…we never formally introduced ourselves." Nimmie slowly began as the woman laid her form upon the length of the divan. "I am Empress Nimmie Amee of the Winkie Country. The canine girl here is Dorothy Gale of Kansas, the Lion is the King of the beasts of the Quadling Country…"

"Ahhh, that explains it." The woman interjected. "You're all from that dreadful, witch-blighted land where everything is strange and unusual. Oz, yes?"

"Actually, Oz is ruled by a very kind and benevolent fairy princess named Ozma." Dorothy calmly corrected.

"You just told me you were transformed by a wicked witch." The woman countered.

Dorothy shrugged her furry shoulders. "I was in another place when it happened."

"May we ask who you are?" The Scarecrow then asked.

The room went silent for a moment before the woman finally answered, her eyes on the straw-stuffed advisor. "I am Langwidere, Princess of the land of Ev, and have been such since the late King Evoldo's…mistake. Now…you say you needed directions?"

The Scarecrow nodded.

"To where?"

"We need to find the entrance to the Nome Dominions." Nimmie replied. "All we know is that there is a large iron guardian with a large mallet keeping a vigil at the door."

The eyes of the woman called Langwidere widened. "Not just strange-looking, but _insane,_ to boot. Why in the _world_ would you want to go down into the caverns of the Nome King?"

"Our reasons are our own, ya majesty." The lion replied.

Trot, however, had something else on her mind. Something that had been bothering her since Langwidere hinted at it. "What's so wrong with me being a monkey? I'm still me, even if my body isn't."

Langwidere arched an eyebrow as her eyes fell upon the young simian visitor. "I prefer to be in the company of people like myself, dear. Beautiful humans. Perfect humans. I should think there are plenty of jungles for you to be among your own kind, little monkey. Unless you were to have yourself restored, of course." She turned her head to Dorothy. "And you? Well…maybe if you have yourself changed back, you can come back here and I can see how much better you look."

Dorothy frowned, resisting the urge to growl as her ears lowered in her disgust. "I believe I _won't._ "

Langwidere shrugged, unaffected by the refusal at all. "Suit yourself."

Nimmie's own dislike for Langwidere's prejudice was hard for the tin woman to hide, and none of the others found the sentiments of this arrogant princess agreeable in any way. "Well, I'm so sorry that our non-human natures apparently offend you so much." Nimmie remarked, keeping her voice calm. "If you just tell us where we can find the entrance to the dominions, we'll be quick to leave you to your apparently perfect company."

"Now why should I do that?" Langwidere responded. "I can't be held responsible for whatever that Nome King will do to you if I tell you where you need to go. You should all return to Oz. Be among your own kind. Whatever business you have down there can't be so important that you should risk never coming back out again."

"Oh! How sweet of you." The Scarecrow's sarcastic tone was plainly evident in this response. "But our business down there is _very_ important. You see, we have friends stuck in a magical predicament, and if we could acquire the aid of just _one_ of the nomes down there…"

Langwidere sighed loudly as she interjected. "You're on a _fool's errand._ None of those little… _things_ are going to want to help you at all. Believe me…I'm doing you a _favor_ by refusing to help you find your way over…YOU! Get away from there! HEY!"

But Trot's simian curiosity had already compelled her to lunge for one of the many cabinets, finding the means to open it and giving it a few sharp tugs, hoping for results. The guards came to life, hurrying over to seize the monkey…

…but the Lion was quick to intercept both guards, grabbing their heads and smashing them both against each other in a manner hard enough to knock them both out, or at least render them dizzy. Fortunately, the former possibility manifested, and they both dropped to the ground. Trot herself leaped off the cabinet door…which was still closed…and landed right on Langwidere's head as she approached the monkey, covering the woman's eyes with one simian hand, and her mouth with the other. She held tight as the princess staggered around.

Trot then looked to her anthropomorphic friend. "Go on, Dorothy! Open one up!"

Nimmie closed on the flailing princess to help Trot hold Langwidere in place…with solid grips of her tin-plated hands…as the canine girl moved to one of the numbered cabinets. The Scarecrow moved behind Dorothy to pay witness to the cabinet's content, while the lion kept an eye on the unconscious guards.

But when Dorothy finally managed to get the cabinet to open, she immediately wished she had never opened it at all.

The canine girl's eyes widened in horror as she and the similarly wide-eyed Scarecrow stared upon the disembodied head of an adolescent, blond-haired and attractive young woman. She had a neutral expression on her face, and the head had apparently been positioned upon a pedestal with an arm that held the head up around a white space large enough to accommodate both the pedestal and the head, with a slight bit of room to spare.

Although it was not a particularly disgusting sight…indeed, the head resembled most plastic hairstyling-head toys...to behold, Dorothy still felt a need to look away, repulsed by the mere notion of gazing upon a head that did not have a body. The Scarecrow opened the cabinet next to the one Dorothy had opened, and exposed the head of yet another adolescent young woman, this one with a head of shoulder-length brown hair, and yet another neutral expression. Opening four other cabinets confirmed the same chilling fact.

"They _all_ have heads!" The Scarecrow proclaimed, his eyes still wide with shock.

Dorothy was completely aghast as she turned, angrily, to Langwidere, her mouth agape. "What's the _meaning_ of all this?"

An incoherent mumbling was the canine girl's only answer from the struggling princess. Dorothy saw that Trot had released her, knowing that Nimmie's tin-fortified grip on the writhing woman would be a little more difficult for Langwidere to release herself from. "Your highness…uncover her mouth, but keep a good grip on her!" Dorothy instructed.

Nimmie nodded, moving her tin hand away from the mouth of the princess. "NO! NO! DON'T TAKE ME AWAY FROM MY BEAUTIFUL HEADS! _PLEASE!_ "

"Well! That explains how she was able to change her appearance from when we first saw her!" The Scarecrow deduced. He then gestured to the door opposite the entrance. "She probably has more heads in _there_ as well."

"It's how she _got_ those heads in the first place that bothers me, Scarecrow!" Dorothy turned her head back to Langwidere. "How long have you been doing this? Just _how many people are in these cabinets?_ "

Trot was already investigating this, glancing at the numbers on the still-closed cabinets around the ones that were opened. "Wow…these numbers go up pretty high, Dorothy."

The lion also looked angry as he brought a furry finger up, accusingly, to the princess. "Yer gonna answer fer all dis, lady! Once we get Glinda back, we are gonna have ya _answer_ fer what ya been doin' ta dese poor people! _Rruff!_ "

" _Glinda?_ " Langwidere called out. "Glinda _knows_ about all this!"

The voices of Nimmie, Dorothy, and all the visitors from Oz called out the same word in their mutual shock. " _WHAT?_ "

"Oh, just let me go and leave me with my heads!" The princess whined.

"Which one of these is your _real_ head, anyway?" The Scarecrow asked. "The one you were _born_ with?"

" _None of your business!_ " Langwidere angrily screamed out, still unable to set herself free from Nimmie's painful grip.

Dorothy angled her head down, entirely unwilling to bring her eyes back up to view the open cabinets. "I can't stay in here. I…I need to go outside…" The canine girl moved for the door to the outside hallway. The lion sympathetically followed her out.

When the lion opened the door, however, they saw another woman standing there, apparently about to knock on the door. She was a fairly pleasant-looking young woman, and she was dressed in a maid's outfit. A look of concern was on her face, which became one of surprise when the door was opened. Startled looks were on the faces of both Dorothy and the lion as well as their eyes met those of the maid.

"Who…who are _you?_ " the maid nervously asked.

"NANDA!" Langwidere shouted. "Get these invaders _off_ of me! Call for more guards! _Do_ _something!_ "

Nanda, however, remained nervous and hesitant as she kept her wary eyes upon the furry canine girl and the lion standing in front of her.

Dorothy was the first to break the ice. "We're not invaders at all. We come from the land of Oz. We're in need of directions to find the entrance to the Nome Dominions."

"Tell them _nothing!_ " Langwidere growled.

Nanda, however, pulled Dorothy and the Lion outside into the hall, closing the door behind her as the restrained princess continued her loud growling and griping.

The maid then turned to face the lion and his canine friend. "May I ask why you would want to go to the Nome Dominions?"

"Nanda…we don't care about the risk. Langwidere made that clear enough to us." Dorothy replied. "We need the help of at least one of them to free our friends from an enchantment that turned all of them to stone."

"An' not just our friends!" The lion added. "A whole _town_ full o' people! All of 'em stone cold solid!"

"We have a problem of our own as well." Nanda remarked, after a moment of thought. "It's the reason why Langwidere is our current ruler. She's the Regent of the Land of Ev, ruling in the absence of the Queen's son, who was King Evoldo's heir. If you can find the Queen and her ten children and bring them back here, you won't have to worry about any reprisals Langwidere might want to bring down upon you."

The lion arched an eyebrow, remembering his interrogation of the man called Goog during their Jinxland adventures. "Da Queen an' her ten kids, eh? Dat sounds familiar!"

"We can certainly look for the Queen and her children." Dorothy answered. "But we'd need to know how to get there if we're gonna find them."

Once the maid agreed to share the needed information, Dorothy had the Scarecrow join them so that his excellent brain could commit Nanda's directional information to memory. Dorothy and the Lion similarly listened in as the servant spoke.

"Nanda…how is it that she has so many heads?" The Scarecrow hoped he could get more of a clue from the maid, despite the revelation about Glinda.

Unfortunately, the straw-stuffed advisor did not get much more than what was already mentioned. "You're gonna need to ask Glinda about that. I can only say that Langwidere's situation is, well, tragic. She wasn't always like this. Her vanity was…warped. None of the female residents of Evna would ever dare come here, and they've usually looked to me to speak to the Regent on any important matters. Sometimes, I worry that she'll want to add _my_ head to her collection for whatever reason, but I guess she prefers my head to be on my own body."

Such were the attentions of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Lion to Nanda's explanation that they all failed to notice a 'bump' noise that came from inside the salon.

"She hasn't _forced_ any of the women to come here, has she?" Dorothy asked.

"Oh, no. She's quite content with the heads she already has." Nanda assured.

"She has a disturbingly excessive amount of heads as it is!" The Scarecrow remarked. "I certainly hope Glinda can give us a really good and believable explanation once we've freed her from that stone spell!"

The group re-entered Langwidere's salon…

…only to find the Regent unconscious in the arms of Empress Nimmie, who was laying Langwidere across her own comfortable-looking divan.

Dorothy tilted her furry head. "What happened?"

"I had to knock her out." Nimmie admitted. "I'm surprised you didn't hear it. I just slammed her head against the ceiling. All that growling and bickering was getting annoying."

Nanda addressed the entire group at this point. "You'd better leave quickly, then. Finding the Royal Family of Ev is the only way you can avoid the Regent's retribution!"

Dorothy placed a padded hand on Nanda's shoulder. "Thank you for your help, Nanda. I promise you. We'll find the Queen and her children."

The Lion and Nimmie placed the unconscious guards back at their guardposts in front of the stairs. With another grateful wave to Nanda, who was at the top of the stairs, the group began following the directions the maid had given them.

Suffice it to say, the group was long gone by the time both of the guards, and Langwidere, had regained consciousness.

* * *

An unconscious sense of instinct seemed to guide Inga as he continued to lead Betsy's group on a journey which ultimately led them to the base of a large mountain region. Before proceeding, Betsy had King Rinkitink open the "lunch pails" he had taken from the trees to share some of its food and drink with the others. Inga found that as a nome, he no longer had human appetites, and he therefore had no interest in any of the food.

He instead studied the rocky terrain with an admittedly perplexing thought on his mind. Inga was lingering on this conundrum when Betsy, who had finished her meal, stepped over to him curiously.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Betsy quietly asked.

"Well…I had thought that there'd be some kind of opening or something." Inga replied. "I know there's a way down from here, but…where's the door?"

The goat called Bilbil stepped over as Inga spoke. "You're the nome. You should be able to tell us."

"Now wait a minute, Bilbil…have you not forgotten that this was once a human boy before that selfish Nome King changed him?" Rinkitink noted.

"Well, as I recall, Inga thinks he's always _been_ a nome." Bilbil countered.

"Maybe this is somethin' he needs t' be taught how t' do." Betsy guessed.

Inga himself wondered why he wasn't hearing the counsel of the Nome King himself as he studied the area. His mind contemplated a number of possible ideas, and he attempted the first of them by raising his gray-skinned hand up towards the rocky surface in front of him.

"Uh… _open!_ " Inga commanded.

Unfortunately, the rocky surface did not yield to his request.

"Maybe if you asked politely?" Rinkitink guessed.

Bilbil angled his furry head to the round-bodied king with an incredulous gaze. "As if that's really gonna make a _difference?_ We're talking about _rocks_ here!"

"Unless you were a rock fairy yourself, my dear Bilbil, I do not believe you could be an authority on such things!" the smiling Rinkitink countered.

Inga just shrugged to Betsy and once again raised his gray hand towards the rocks. "Could you _please_ open up for us?"

No effect.

"Maybe y' jus' need t' walk right up to it an' _make_ a way in for us." Betsy wondered aloud.

Inga looked curiously to Rinkitink, who shrugged. "Makes sense. Give it a try!" The monarch remarked.

The round-bodied nome thus moved closer to the rocky surface, choosing an area where the surface began its angle towards the skies above. He then placed his gray hand upon it.

Inga felt a pressure at his pointed ears, as if he had just inserted earplugs. He couldn't hear a thing. His eyes widened at this discovery. It was undoubtedly a start.

The formerly human prince then ran the hand along the rock face, and he could feel a rumbling at his ears as the hand kept rubbing upon the surface. His steps were slow as he moved, the others slowly following behind him.

After moving a few feet from where he had started, he began to hear the faint sounds of footsteps, and various voices too far away to be able to clearly pick up on. It seemed clear to Inga now that he had found a way in.

It was just a matter of making a way in, as Betsy had guessed. But how, he wondered?

A couple of curious pushes upon the hard stone surface quite unexpectedly provided him with his answer, as the fingers of his nome hands dug effortlessly into the rock.

Digging his fingers in further provided him with handholds, and Inga began pushing his gray hands down, literally creating an opening in the rock. The opening was certainly large enough for people like him and Betsy, and perhaps even Bilbil, to pass through, but there was no way Rinkitink could make it through.

Working at the rock surface further, Inga was able to modify the opening appropriately, and a large, wide, and arched separation upon the rocky surface now stood waiting for the group to pass through.

Once his hands had pulled away from the rocky surface, Inga's natural hearing capacities had returned.

"Wow!" Betsy's eyes were wide with awe. She stepped behind the young nome and rubbed his gray shoulders in her appraisal. "Great work, Inga!"

"Try to be careful." Inga warned. "I heard voices. They sounded far, but…be careful anyway."

It now occurred to Inga that he had been feeling at rock surfaces that were apparently too thick for him to be able to breach, justifying the temporary loss of his hearing, until he had happened upon a surface that was thin enough for his nome senses to penetrate, and provide an opening upon.

Bilbil's voice was silent as he made his suggestion to Inga. "Can you close that back up? If the idea is to sneak into here, we wouldn't want an unexpected opening to attract attention."

Inga turned his gaze to Betsy, wondering what she might think of the idea. The Oklahoma girl nodded. "Go ahead an' close it. I'm sure you could find us anoth'r way out, anyway, if we need t' leave."

The young nome nodded, and he placed his hands at the edges of the opening, practically pulling the edges together to effectively close the opening he had made. Inga made sure that there was no trace of any intrusion upon what was now a smooth, hard, and seamless surface once more. He was even able to thicken the stone surface a bit before pulling his gray-skinned hands away.

The corridor the group had found their way into looked a bit uneven, but negotiable, and provided passages to the east and the west directions. Naturally, all eyes turned once again to the nome who had provided them with the way in.

"I think…" Inga fished a gray hand into the pocket where he kept the white pearl, and grasped it once more. By virtue of its magical wisdom, he was urged to take the east path. "…this way."

Inga kept the group moving along the strangely quiet passages. He never stopped at intersections, and chose his directions as the white pearl had mentally dictated to him. At one four-way intersection, he continued north, and at another, he led the group down a westward path. Some passages sloped up, others led them down a similarly-slanted path. Some passages were as uneven as the ones they had initially found, while others were wider. In all of their walking, however, they were at no point disturbed, nor did they run into anyone remotely resembling a nome.

One of the passages started narrow, but it then began to widen, and the passage continued to get wider and wider until they found that the ground beneath them had changed. A mild crunching sound could be heard and when they looked down, they found that they were literally walking upon a sea of glittering stones, most of them looking quite valuable.

Rinkitink's eyes widened as he saw this. He had to stop and lower his thick frame down to grab a handful of these stones. Holding them before him, the rotund monarch noted that while they looked scratched, nicked, and otherwise tarnished, they were indeed a handful variation of otherwise precious stones. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires…they were stepping upon a veritable sea of them as they moved.

Betsy and Inga, on the other hand, stared upon the sights ahead of them.

The tall growths emerging from the sea of precious stones beneath them seemed to bear the appearance of the natural trees in a forest, but this subterranean semblance of a forest was comprised of trees that did not have natural leaf growths and bark-covered wood as they had the _appearance_ of trees, these in particular rendered in various precious metals. There were trees of pure gold mingling with those of pure silver here. It was a natural forest, and a large one at that, lingering beneath the cavern's domed ceiling.

Betsy frowned in her curiosity, running a hand over one of the solid gold semblances of natural bark. Inga, however, looked a bit more awestruck over what he was seeing. He felt like he wanted to stay here for days, if not longer, as he slowly wandered around.

"Beautiful…" Inga heard himself quietly remark as he wandered. "…it's…like it's…out of a _dream_ …"

Inga had been grasping the white pearl in one hand throughout the trip here, and he had pulled this hand out of his pocket upon beginning his wander through this particular cavern.

As he became more enraptured, his grip on the pearl loosened, and the enchanted heirloom dropped to the ground as his eyes roamed the expanse of the metallic trees around him.

Rinkitink and Bilbil also found themselves wandering through the unnatural, but nevertheless intriguing facsimile of a natural forest, feeling along its varying gold and silver textures as they moved. More precious stones crunched about beneath them, providing the illusion of a mildly-yielding expanse of soft soil.

As he glanced to Rinkitink, he noticed something odd about one of his pockets. Like he had filled it with something, and the goat knew full well that the pocket was empty before they had entered this particular cavern.

"Your highness." Bilbil's voice was wary as he spoke. "Lose them."

Naturally, the large King's initial reaction was one of apparent confusion. "Lose what? I have nothing!"

"Other than what you have in your pocket there." Bilbil noted. "Give them up."

"Oh, _come_ now, my dear Bilbil. I do not think they would miss a mere _handful!_ "

Betsy and Bilbil spoke sharply, and as one. " _Lose them._ "

Rinkitink sighed. "Oh, all right, fine, fine." He turned out the pocket in question, allowing the handful of precious stones he had picked up to fall back to the ground, quickly blending with the rest of the stones below. "I probably wouldn't get much for them anyway. They're not exactly flawless, after all."

"Ev'n if they were, they're not ours for th' takin'." Betsy reasoned. "That'd be _stealin'._ "

Rinkitink lowered his head a bit, blushing shamefully. A low voice none of them recognized, however, interrupted the silence that followed Betsy's words.

"You're a very wise young girl."

The voice was behind them, and they all turned to see a regally-dressed man about a head taller than Inga, and sharing many of the features that separated Inga from the human he used to be, step slowly over to Inga, who was in front of him. This regal-looking nome calmly placed a hand upon Inga's shoulder as the former human maintained his awe over his surroundings. Indeed, it seemed as if he was in a bit of a daze as the regal-looking, gray-skinned, and white-haired nome calmly regarded Inga's friends with a curious gaze.

"But then, I don't expect much in the way of greed and avarice from a girl like yourself." The elder nome continued, speaking thoughtfully. "For you to have a soul as pure as silver, I should make a sentry out of you. Transmute your own skin to pure silver, and leave you to steadfastly pace around, capably guarding our Metal Forest for the rest of your days."

"I'd like t' stay th' way I am now, thank you." Betsy quickly countered.

The elder nome grinned in a very unsettling fashion. "That is not up to you, Betsy Bobbin of Oklahoma." The nome moved slowly forward to begin circling around Betsy as he spoke. "In any case, nothing will happen to you. For the moment, anyway."

"You…have us at a loss, sir." Rinkitink remarked, speaking carefully. "You know who the girl is, and I fancy you know our own names as well, but…"

"I am Kaliko." The regal nome interjected. "I am Steward to Roquat, the King of the nomes."

"An'…how is it that y' know who we are?" Betsy asked, warily keeping her eyes on Kaliko as he continued to pace around her.

The amused nome chuckled. "An idle inquiry to the long-eared hearer, of course. He could hear things happening all over these dominions, above the dominions, beyond the shifting sands that surround your land of Oz…he can even hear people writing upon the ground, and tell us exactly what they were saying to each other. Our king is addressing a related situation right now, in fact. Visitors, not much different than yourselves…with the obvious exception of Ingot over there…who schemed to become obstinate to our unsolicited courtesies. They'll likely end up no different than their tin-plated representative."

Betsy's eyes widened a bit, knowing full well who Kaliko was referring to.

"And yes, your friend…Fyter, was it? He's in the same room with the rest of the Royal Family of Ev." Kaliko then added, noticing Betsy's reaction. He finally stopped in front of the Oklahoma girl, gazing right into her eyes. "And you came here to free them all, didn't you?"

"We have." Betsy calmly answered, frowning to the amused-looking Steward.

"Consider yourself lucky that I am prepared to give you such an opportunity to do so, young Betsy." Kaliko then remarked, after a moment of thought.

"Why?" Bilbil immediately asked.

Kaliko arched an eyebrow, turning his head to the goat. "What kind of a question is that?"

"You obviously caught us slipping into your domain uninvited." Bilbil remarked. "I would think your next move would be to take us as your prisoners, and perhaps act on your urge to turn Betsy into your 'silver sentry'."

Kaliko now stepped towards the goat, beginning a slow pace around the wary, four-legged beast. "I could do that. I could also tell you that Ingot, who is basically a newborn nome, is going to continue to be enthralled by our king's Metal Forest. Having Betsy serve as an immortal guardian could keep Ingot company while he remains here…but it might come as a complete surprise to you that Roquat does not have a great many friends within the dominions. They frequently send me to speak to the king on their behalf, in fact, and my head has consequently been a consistent target of the king's scepter whenever he feels the need to cast it upon me in anger, which is…" he rubbed a spot on his white-haired head which made him wince. "…a painfully frequent occurrence."

Rinkitink now arched an eyebrow. "So you want to supplant him?"

"That would certainly please a great many nomes here." Kaliko replied. "There is another, far more important reason why this needs to happen, but…I'm not prepared to share that with you."

"What would we need t' do?" Betsy asked, now quite curious.

A slight, devious smile now played on Kaliko's lips, as if the cat ate the canary without being caught in the act. "Follow me."

Betsy, Rinkitink, and Bilbil began walking behind the steward, but they noticed that Inga was not. The Oklahoma girl began to move towards him…

"Leave him." Kaliko firmly remarked, warily stopping Betsy in her tracks. "I can't trust him to help me. Especially if it was Roquat who made him one of us."

"As he was…and still is…one of our own, sir, I must insist that he join us!" Rinkitink demanded.

Kaliko sighed irritably. "If you're concerned for his safety? Trust me. Ingot won't be going anywhere other than here." The steward assured as Betsy turned back to him. "His fascination for this place should linger for many days."

Betsy frowned as the group began moving worriedly away from the still-transfixed Inga. "I b'lieve we won't be here long'r than a day, Kaliko."

"Unless you fail." Kaliko countered, leading the group into another earthen corridor. "And in your case, Betsy, you're going to be maintaining a permanent vigil over our Metal Forest for the rest of your existence if you do."

Betsy only stopped for a moment as Kaliko spoke, her eyes falling upon a single object on the ground that stood out from the other glittering stones their feet were crunching upon. An object she quickly picked up and pocketed, in her curiosity, before hurrying back over to Kaliko. An object that had been unconsciously dropped by an enthralled young prince who had been transformed into a nome.

It was a single white pearl.

* * *

As much as the Scarecrow's capacity to memorize Nanda's instructions did not disappoint, neither did Nanda's instructions. As they were a little closer to the general entrance to the Nome Dominions in comparison to Betsy's group, they were able to get there not long before the arrival of Betsy and her friends.

The Scarecrow led Dorothy, the Lion, Nimmie, and Trot to the narrow bridge, which hovered over a deep chasm, that Nanda spoke of. The bridge led to a large, circular metallic platform which looked a bit worn from constant battering.

And, sure enough, the impetus of that battering hovered high above it, and the gargantuan mallet was being held by the mechanical iron guardian the Scarecrow had read about. The humongous, cast-iron sentinel was rendered as what the Scarecrow surmised was a bulky, muscular semblance of a bearded nome with a stoic expression, both of its massive arms and hands tightly grasping the mallet the construct held.

As the platform was large enough for Dorothy's entire group to gather upon, they all surmised the same thing upon gazing at the guardian's weapon.

This thing could indeed crush everyone in one big smash of that mallet.

As Dorothy feared, the lion looked quite frightened upon looking up at the iron guardian. The cowardice he had done such a fantastic job of suppressing up until now was re-asserting itself upon the leonine monarch's psyche, effectively rooting him to where he stood.

The others were themselves awed by this gigantic sentinel, and they were each intimidated in their own way as they gazed upon it.

"D-duh…duuuh-duuuh…dat's…dat's one…b-big, big…humungerous…" The lion quivered wildly as he stared up at the mallet. "…s-splattah…"

"Wow…words just can't do this thing justice." The Scarecrow observed as he, too, stared. "This is a marvelous construct. Smith and Tinker really outdid themselves."

"Well, I'm so glad ya tink it's so marvelerous, straw-head, but…b-but dat really don't get us _across,_ does it?" The lion stammered, grasping his own tail nervously.

Dorothy's eyes were on the construct thoughtfully, voicing her assumptions as they manifested. "I'm not hearing any noises coming from that thing. You would think that as a construct with gears and moving parts that you could hear motors running, at least. Even when it's idle."

The Scarecrow was already rubbing at his chin thoughtfully as he studied the iron sentinel. "Maybe this platform is a pressure plate. The mallet comes down whenever someone steps on it. If that's the case, I wonder how sensitive the plate is. How much weight is required for the mechanism to activate."

"There's also the matter of how quickly the mallet strikes." Nimmie thoughtfully added. "It's already in a position to come down."

The canine girl's eyes estimated the distance between where they were, the width of the plate, and the opposite side of the plate. As much as Dorothy wanted to demonstrate her courage to her terrified lion king, there was the very real possibility that her urge would become a big mistake in one sickening splat.

But a look of sheer determination replaced her more concerned one. "Only one way to find out."

Dorothy then began dashing, as fast as her canine legs could carry her, straight across the plate, ignoring the wild and shocked cries of her name behind her. She expected the shock to be quick, sudden, and relatively painless if it came down as fast as Nimmie might have surmised.

But the loud bang came down _behind_ her as she nearly collided with the closed doors to the Nome Dominions. It was indeed a resounding, thunderous bang that echoed around the immediate area.

Dorothy herself, however, was safely on the other side of the impact area, and completely unhurt. She had to pant rapidly, however, her tongue lolling down as she sat where she stood, as her nerves were understandably shot from the effort.

Whirring and clicking gears preceded yet another resounding bang from the mallet behind her, but the others were able to confirm that Dorothy had made it across, and all of them now looked visibly relieved. The canine girl, upon recovering from her moment of shock, rose up and turned to face her friends on the other side.

"Think you can make it across, Trot?" Dorothy called out. "You need to be really fast! Don't stop at all! I'll catch you!"

"I'll try!" Trot called back, and she quickly estimated the timing of the mallet drops, which were now banging repeatedly. After two drops, Trot began dashing across, loping as fast as she could.

As with Dorothy, she was able to make it across safely, leaping right into the canine girl's waiting, fluffy arms as the mallet thunderously collided with the ground behind them both with mechanical precision.

Nimmie had been doing her own estimations as Dorothy and Trot risked their lives to get across. She wasn't scanning across the width of the impact area, however. She knew that her tin frame wouldn't go fast enough to get across without some part of her body being flattened by the mallet's impact.

She was, instead, looking at the _edges_ of the platform. The empress felt confident that her tin-plated fingers could grasp upon it firmly enough to be able to get across without being hit by the mallet. Glancing at the Scarecrow, and estimating that his relatively light weight would not affect her progress, she knew what she would do once she confirmed that Trot had made it across.

"Scarecrow…hold on to my back real tight." Nimmie remarked. The straw-stuffed advisor was quick to comply with this request.

As the mallet continued banging, Nimmie lowered herself down and established a good grasp on the edge of the platform, going hand over hand as she carefully progressed around the impact point, her feet…and those of the Scarecrow…hovering precariously over the seemingly bottomless chasm below. As nerves would never be an issue to a woman made of tin, there was no hesitation in Nimmie's movements.

The tin empress allowed the Scarecrow to climb up her back to join Dorothy and Trot, after which Nimmie hefted herself onto the opposite length of ground in front of the large doors leading into the Dominions.

But their eyes turned to the last of the group that had not yet made it across.

And the Cowardly Lion looked far too frightened to even move, despite the successes he had paid witness to. Those bangs were doing his nerves no favors at all, and it looked like he was on the verge of fainting now.

"Come on, lion! Snap out of it!" The Scarecrow called out.

"You can do it, my king!" Dorothy added. "Lions are just as fast as dogs!"

Every time the mallet came down, a jolt of fear wracked the lion's furry body, and he held the thick tuft of hair at the end of his tail close to his mouth in his paralyzing fright. "C-couldn't I…y'know, s..sssstand guard here? I-I'll wait for ya! Yeah! I-I'll…"

"We're not going _anywhere_ without you, my king!" Dorothy yelled.

"How could you say that?" The Scarecrow scolded. "You're the leader…the _founder_ …of the Legion of Courage! You can't shame what that medal of yours stands for!"

"The Scarecrow's right!" Nimmie added. "Haven't you ever needed to lead by example? How do you think the rest of the Legion would feel if they saw what you're doing now?"

"B-bu-buuh…b-but dat ting's gonna _splat_ me!" The lion whined. "I-I don't _wanna_ get splatted!"

"Lion, look at me!" Trot called out. "Please! Just look at me!"

Although the mallet's blows continued to hammer down, the lion at least summoned up the courage to slowly angle his head towards the eyes of the monkey, whose human eyes stared back at him with a far less fearful gaze.

"Now listen to me." Trot continued. "You're gonna run over to us as fast as you can, and you're gonna make it across."

" _I'll be splatted!_ "

" _NO YOU WON'T!_ " Trot shot back. "I'll tell you when to go! _Trust_ me! You'll be fine!"

"B-but…but what…what if…"

"NO! No more 'buts'!" Trot yelled out, as authoritatively as she could. "I'm _not_ looking for Cap'n Bill without you! I'm _not_ gonna fix a problem I was tricked into causing without you! As a member of the Legion of Courage, I am _ordering_ you to _come across!_ I came all this way _by myself_ just to find Cap'n Bill, and if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have met Koup! He told me how you believed in him when everyone else thought he was just as bad as the other baboons! Well now, I'm believing in _you!_ "

"So will I!" The Scarecrow added, nodding emphatically.

"Me too!" Nimmie yelled.

"You can do it, my king!" Dorothy added.

Trot's words had the lion reminiscing of the moment in which he indeed put his trust in one of the destructive, bat-winged simian lackeys who had long been condemned over their actions in leaving the China Country in ruins at the behest of the Wicked Witch of the East a long time ago, back before Oscar Diggs had arrived in Oz. He remembered having to bear distrust and shame over his very decision to befriend Koup. He even got himself physically hurt over it.

Accusations of cowardice were even mercilessly hurled upon him.

Nevertheless, he knew what he was doing was the right thing to do. He knew it would stop a war. Even if he was the only person who believed that just one of the baboons was willing to show the kind of restraint, sympathy, and understanding that would make him far less of a problem as those among his fellow baboons who didn't know the meaning of the word, he remembered being prepared to willingly suffer on his behalf.

And for his efforts, people began to view Koup differently. Began to see that even among monsters, there were exceptions. Truly, as the lion's actions had shown, Koup was not the only one willing to turn over a new leaf.

None of this would have manifested without the primary catalyst of the lion's efforts.

 _Courage!_

The lion released his tail, and his fearful expression melted to one of resolve as his frightened gaze became a hard stare. "Waitin' on you, kid."

…BAM…

…BAM…

…BAM…

Their voices spoke as one. " _NOW!_ "

He was able to launch himself forward at full speed the moment he heard their voices, firing himself forward with total determination, and ignoring the whoosh of air as the mallet rose up for its next blow.

The large double doors suddenly began to scrape inward as the lion collided with them, falling back into the waiting arms of his friends as the mallet resounded its next loud bang upon an empty platform once again.

Helping the lion back to his feet, Trot leapt upon him, hugging him tightly. "You _did it! You did it!_ "

Dorothy also wrapped her own furry arms around the relieved lion as tears of joy fell from her eyes. "I knew you could do it, my king!"

"Way to go, your majesty!" The Scarecrow heartily complimented. "I think that's the fastest I've ever seen you move!"

Nimmie placed a tin-plated hand upon the lion's shoulder as she smiled. "My husband was right about you. You really are the most courageous lion I've ever met."

The lion couldn't help but feel bashful as he grinned, and it clearly showed in his voice. "Aww, shucks. I'm jus' gettin' _started!_ Uh-huh-huh-huuuh!"

And then, the voice of the all-powerful presence that had to be the Nome King himself echoed through the dark interiors of the entrance cavern that was now open to the group. "ENOUGH OF ALL THIS MAUDLIN BICKERING!" The growly voice sounded inescapably cranky and bitter. "GATHER YOURSELVES, AND STEP FORWARD!"

Although they were initially startled, the lion frowned as he placed Trot back on the ground. "Hah! Bet he tinks dat voice could _scare_ us or somethin'! _Phooey!_ " He looked to the monkey. "You ain't scared, are ya, Trot?"

"Nuh-uh!" Trot shook her head in emphasis. "I'm not scared at all."

"Neither am I! _Rruff!_ " Dorothy added, her fluffy ears lowered in her determination.

After a determined nod in response, the lion angled his head back to Nimmie and the Scarecrow. "Stay behind us. Da Legion o' Courage is on point!"

With Dorothy and Trot flanking him, the lion proudly began his advance. His two furry subjects remained just behind him, frowns of determination on their own furry faces.

Nimmie shrugged, smiling, as she angled her head to the Scarecrow. "Guess I'll watch the rear then."

"And I've got…" the straw-stuffed advisor looked around with a puzzled expression. "…uh, I guess…I've got the middle! Yeah! I…I'll keep the _middle_ safe!" He hurried to his self-ordained position as the group began moving. "And I'll be the smartest middle ever because of my excellent brain!"


	13. XIII: Hard Bargains

**XIII: Hard Bargains**

Kaliko led Betsy, Rinkitink, and Bilbil down a long, earthen corridor, and past many alternate passages leading to various upper and lower areas of the dominions. Many of the corridors were separated by well-crafted archways lined in either silver or gold. All three of Kaliko's guests could not help but feel a sense of awe for the world they had found themselves being led through.

The trio was silent as they walked, as they were either concerned for wherever they were being led to, or they worried for the little nome Inga had become who had been left behind within the Metal Forest. What was to become of him, they wondered? Rinkitink and Bilbil had other concerns, seeing as how they paid witness to his transformation through the magic of Roquat. How much deeper into this well of nomes could Inga possibly go? Would he ever be the human boy he used to be, or would he be Ingot for the rest of his life?

They also wondered if there was more to the reason as to why Roquat chose to change him. Was there indeed more to young Inga than they were aware?

The clamor of working and muttering nomes began to quiet down as the group moved into another portion of the dominions that was nothing more than another large corridor. At the end of this passage, the corridor turned right, but Kaliko stopped and turned to the group before they reached it.

"Forgive my lack of confidence," Kaliko calmly began. "but I have little faith that any of you will be capable of accomplishing what you will need to do once you proceed from here."

"Why?" Betsy asked. "We don't ev'n know what y' want us t' do."

Kaliko smirked in response to this. "Beyond the right turn behind me are three archways. Walk through them, and follow them to their logical ends."

"And what is so special about these 'logical ends'?" Bilbil asked.

Kaliko tilted his head. "Reach them, and find out for yourselves."

Rinkitink frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "And if we refuse?"

Kaliko grinned in a most unsettling manner. "The Metal Forest gets a silver-skinned sentry named Betsy, and you and the, uh, goat there will be brought before the Nome King. Believe me…you do _not_ want that."

"But I don't und'rstand." Betsy looked to Rinkitink. "What did y' mean by what y' said b'fore? Supple-somethin'?"

"Hm? Ah…you don't know what _supplant_ means _._ " Rinkitink replied. "That means Kaliko here wants to take Roquat's place as the new king of the nomes."

Betsy nodded as the round king spoke, and then turned back to Roquat's steward. "So…y' want us t' _spy_ on 'im or somethin'?"

Although Kaliko was a bit smaller in height compared to Betsy, he nevertheless stepped right up to her, fixing an intimidating stare upon her. " _You_ figure it out."

The steward then turned and walked in the opposite direction without saying another word.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Betsy began to follow him, frowning, but Rinkitink stepped in front of her, stopping the Oklahoma girl in her tracks.

The round-bodied monarch gently placed his pudgy hands on the girl's shoulders. His words were as silent as possible as he spoke. "I have a feeling the steward means to test our resolve, my dear. If you ask me, I believe we should play along. If only to find out how he might want us to help him supplant Roquat."

"But…what if it's some kind o' trap?" Betsy asked, her head tilted to the side.

Rinkitink shrugged, smiling. "That's the risk we're going to have to take, I'm afraid."

"Well, well, well. Listen to you." Bilbil mused. "I don't think I've ever heard you sound like a responsible king before."

The rotund king smirked to the goat. "Well, my people do favor me for a _reason,_ old friend."

"Oh?" Bilbil's tone was clearly sarcastic. "So it wasn't just because of your bad jokes?"

"Hey, c'mon. We don't have _time_ t' do any arguin'!" Betsy reminded. She then began moving towards the right passage, with Rinkitink and Bilbil following behind.

The corridor following the right turn extended for about ten feet before opening up into three small tunnels leading to archways. They could not see much beyond these archways other than large sconces on the earthen walls, unto which a pair of unlit torches were placed.

"Seems simple enough, don'cha think?" Betsy mused to Rinkitink, stepping in front of the left-most archway. "One for each of us."

"Do you think it might lead us to the same place?" Bilbil openly wondered as he clopped over to the right-most archway. "Or to three different places?"

Rinktink shrugged again to the goat, smiling. "Only one way to find out." He then proceeded past the middle archway, effectively beginning his trek into one of the three caverns. Betsy also shrugged to Bilbil before proceeding through her own archway.

Bilbil turned to gaze into the darkness beyond his chosen archway with a wary expression, but after a moment, the furry, four-legged goat breached the space beneath the archway and proceeded inside.

The torches within all three passages fired up the moment they set foot into the 10' x 10' space beyond the archway entrances. A low rumble could also be heard once they were all within their respective spaces. Betsy continued walking forward, as did Bilbil…

…but it was Rinkitink who stopped within his own small room following the rumble, and he was the only one to turn around and look behind him, to see if the archway entrance was still there. One of the king's eyebrows arched up when he made the ominous, but not completely unexpected discovery.

The archway entrance was indeed gone.

In its place? An earthen wall. Not much different from a dead end. Trap or no trap, there was no turning back now.

It was time to play the steward's game.

* * *

The first room she had stepped in was a cube-like, 10' x 10' room, with archway exits ahead of her, and to her left and her right. The Oklahoma girl also scanned the ceiling, as well, but saw nothing other than a featureless stone surface similar to the ground upon which she stood.

As Betsy figured that she might run into either Bilbil or Rinkitink, she decided to move through the archway to her right…

…but once she passed through the archway, a loud rumbling could be heard, and the ground shook beneath her feet. When Betsy looked behind her as she staggered about, she saw the archway shift out of sight. When the rumbling stopped, and all was quiet, a blank stone wall replaced the archway she had just stepped through.

The room she had stepped in? Similar to the last. Another 10' x 10' room, with archway entrances ahead of her, and to the left and the right.

She remained alone, as well. There was no sign of either Bilbil or Rinkitink.

Betsy chose the left archway next, running right through its space. Once again, the rumbling, and the sound of grinding, shifting rock was witnessed as she wavered about where she stood.

In the silence that followed, Betsy stood in yet another room similar to the previous two.

When she looked up, however, she saw a wide, circular opening in the ceiling!

The eyes of the Oklahoma girl lingered on this new modification, and she began to surmise that going through this ceiling space might very well warrant a different result, and one that would be beneficial to her progress.

Her attempts at leaping up as high as she could to get a hand-hold on the edge of the opening, however, proved fruitless. It was just too high for her to reach, even for someone trained in acrobatic feats.

She was understandably hesitant to take one of the other, more familiar paths, realizing by now that they would potentially have her running around in circles. Settling upon the stone surface, and then letting out a frustrated sigh, her thoughts went to the small white object she had found before leaving the Metal Forest.

Her hand went to the pocket where she had placed the pearl, and she fished it out so she could take a closer look at it.

It then became apparent to Betsy, before she even looked at the pearl, that climbing through the ceiling opening in this room would have been a grave mistake.

The Oklahoma girl rose to her feet, her eyes wide open as she continued to grip the white pearl in one hand. She then moved through the left archway without a moment's hesitation.

Somehow, it seemed like the correct choice. Or at least, a choice that would lead her…somewhere. Take her someplace that would be indicative of actual progress, rather than have her infinitely going nowhere.

Rather than stop, however, she kept moving. Even as she felt the trembling and heard the rumbling. Instinct seemed to take over as she chose the right archway, moving even after passing through that entrance. She then took the archway in front of her. Then the left. Through every archway, Betsy picked a different entrance. A right. Straight ahead. Another one in front of her. Then left. She never stopped for a moment, even with the rumblings, the loud grindings, and the tremors beneath her and behind her.

Never once did these strange urges direct her attention to any openings in the ceilings whenever they showed up. No doubt these options were always fatal in this network of shifting caverns.

And all of the block-like caverns had looked the same. 10' x 10', and completely empty save for the archways. Were it not for these strange urges that were apparently playing to her benefit, it was entirely possible that she could have gone mad trying to figure out the proper path to get to wherever it was that Kaliko had challenged them to reach.

On a hunch, however, Betsy stopped in one of the stone chambers, and with her hand…and the white pearl…still in her pocket, she released the small white object and looked to the available archways.

As she expected, she could not figure out which one to go through.

Betsy pulled out the white pearl, and in so doing, learned that the left path was her next choice. She remained where she stood, however, as her eyes fell upon the object she had found in the Metal Forest.

The pearl was clean and unblemished. There was no glow emanating from it, but it was clear now that this pearl was imparting an enchantment upon Betsy's mind for as long as she held it.

Maintaining a lasting grip upon the white pearl with one hand, Betsy resumed her progress, passing through the left archway.

This time, however, there was no rumbling, nor shifting, nor were there any tremors. Additionally, the room she had walked into was quite a bit larger than the shifting rooms she had been leaving behind her.

Betsy also heard distinct breathing noises. Not too loud, but certainly noticeable. It was slow breathing, indicative of someone sleeping.

The Oklahoma girl's peripheral vision caught the flicker of something nearby, and when her eyes fell upon the impetus of this flicker, she saw what looked like the end of a scaly tail, which quite oddly had an inactive electric light attached to it.

Its scales had the appearance of glittering silver, and each of these scales were as big as a serving tray. The pattern covered the thin area of his tail, and Betsy's eyes followed it to a large, scaly body that was sky blue in color, the area which was apparently the creature's gut expanding and contracting with each puff of its breath.

Its size was considerable overall as Betsy stared upon the creature in intimidated awe, stepping back to get a better look at how big it was. Upon spotting its distinct, scaly, sky blue head, it was clear now as to what manner of creature she had found.

It was a real, live _dragon._

* * *

Tilda felt a brief, but sharp lurch in her gut as she attempted the teleportation spell she never believed she could actually cast, given its complexity compared to the other cantrips she was used to studying. This nice old man they called the Wizard of Oz, however, was entirely confident that she could pull it off.

It was out of her building trust for the words of Oscar Diggs that she finally gave it a try…

…and, seeing as how she was no longer inside the royal palace, but very much _outside_ of it, she succeeded!

She had, however, lost her balance, and her posture began to waver right beside a beautiful-looking fountain near the royal palace. A great many voices cried out in horror as it seemed like this apprentice spellcaster was about to lose all of her memories…

…but a young munchkin had grabbed Tilda, keeping her from falling in right at that moment! They both fell safely away from the fountain, both of their memories fully intact.

The munchkin, who wore a maid's uniform, helped Tilda to her feet as many people around them heaved a sigh of relief before going on with their respective businesses. The young munchkin girl patted off some of the soil on Tilda's dress before looking up to her.

"Are you okay?" The cute little munchkin asked.

"Oh yes, I'm fine, thank you." Tilda smiled down to the munchkin. "Thanks for keeping me dry."

"Getting wet would have been the _least_ of the consequences." The little munchkin then pointed to a sign that was on the exquisitely-crafted landmark:

 **ALL PERSONS ARE  
**FORBIDDEN**  
TO DRINK AT THIS  
FOUNTAIN**

Tilda frowned as she turned her head to the munchkin. "Why would such a beautiful-looking fountain be poisoned?"

"Well…it wouldn't have _killed_ you." The munchkin maid replied. "But you would have lost _all_ of your memories. That's why they call it the water of oblivion." She then extended a hand. "Name's Tula, by the way."

The young apprentice reached down to shake the smaller munchkin's hand, smiling. "I'm Tilda. Thank you for saving…my _memories,_ then."

"You might want to be a little more careful as to where you appear when you use magic to move around next time." Tula remarked.

"Actually, this was my first time using magic to relocate myself." Tilda shrugged, smiling. "I didn't think I could do it."

"Really? Well, congratulations!" Tula complimented. "You must have a pretty good teacher."

Tilda nodded, smiling. "He's actually waiting for me in the palace."

"And I need to get back on my errands." Tula added, giving a wave as she began to walk away. "Nice to meetcha, Tilda."

Tilda also waved, smiling as she began moving towards the palace. "Likewise, Tula!"

Although she knew that Oscar was a busy man, given his duties as the interim ruler of Oz, she had to at least let him know that after all her attempts at casting the spell in the privacy of the guest room she had been given at the royal palace, she finally succeeded.

When she entered the throne room, however, she saw that the palace's head maid, Jellia Jamb, was in a state of confusion as she looked around the room. When she saw the young apprentice, she moved to her quickly.

"Have you seen the wizard, Tilda?" Jellia asked, her expression and voice full of unexpected worry.

The young apprentice shrugged as she spoke. "Not since he left me to practice a spell he taught me a few hours ago."

Jellia now looked wary. "Well…it's been a few hours since last I saw him."

Tilda frowned in her confusion, trying to think of what could have happened to her new mentor.

Then it hit her, and her face went pale.

When they returned from Jinxland, Oscar took the spellbooks Dorothy and her friends had stolen from the Jinxland witches back with him to the royal palace. She remembered warning him against even _trying_ to read them.

"Oh, no…" Tilda's eyes went wide with horror. "…you _didn't_ …"

The apprentice's first stop was the very same room that Oscar had taken the texts when they arrived at the palace. Ozma's boudoir. Confused, Jellia followed behind Tilda as she rushed up the stairs.

Upon opening the door to the boudoir, the first thing they both felt was a distinct chill. The once warm, comfortable, and lavish climate of the room had quite literally turned a lot colder, and everything inside the boudoir now had a bluish tint to it.

The eyes of both Tilda and Jellia then fell upon a sight that made the head maid blurt out a scream of horror.

An old man sat at a table in the boudoir, and he seemed to be reading a book with a look of wide-eyed horror on his own ice-blue face. Small stalactites, and patches of snowy frost, could be seen upon this man's body. Not one inch of him, which was now covered from head to toe in a layer of clear ice, could move at all.

And this benevolent, sweet old man's name was Oscar Zoroaster Phaedrig Issac Norman Henkel Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs.

* * *

Betsy was understandably hesitant to even consider bringing this dragon out of his slumber. He didn't look particularly nasty or ill-tempered, but the Oklahoma girl knew that just because he didn't look dangerous didn't mean that this scaly beast wasn't actually dangerous.

And it should be noted here, dear reader, that in all this time, neither Rinkitink nor Bilbil could do anything other than follow chaotic routes through their own archways that led them anywhere other than the ones that would take them anywhere near the dragon's cavern, and they were still in the midst of trying to figure things out when Betsy came upon the dragon with the aid of the white pearl.

Betsy figured she'd try to quietly bypass the huge beast and take another archway, and so a hand went back into the pocket of the somewhat humiliating-looking servant's outfit the Oklahoma girl was still wearing…this having been given to her by Queen Cor after she had turned her into one of those pink-skinned thralls…to grasp at the white pearl and move on.

Surprisingly, the pearl provided no particular direction for Betsy to take. She saw right and left archways on the far left and right sides of the cavern, but the pearl gave her no indication as to which one she should take.

Was it due to her increasing curiosity regarding the dragon, she thought? She had always been told stories about dragons when she was younger, but her parents had always assured her that no such creatures exist.

And now her eyes were lingering on a very real one.

Based on what she knew from the stories she had been told about mighty knights vanquishing evil dragons, worries lingered on her mind. Would this dragon fry her to a crisp with a single, terrifying blast of its fire breath if it knew Betsy was here?

Betsy's movements were slow and quiet as she made her way over to the left archway. She was already hoping that this unassisted decision wasn't one that would lead her astray or worse, into some kind of a trap.

The round stone had her wildly wobbling about once she had unconsciously stepped upon it. In her disorientation, she could not recover fast enough to be able to keep from stumbling backwards, and from falling upon a warm, scaly surface that was blocking the solid ground she had been walking upon.

A surface which began to slowly move upwards as Betsy's eyes went nervously wide. A surface which moved itself to an angle where the Oklahoma girl was able to harmlessly slide off of it.

Betsy turned to face the dragon…

…and found the dragon's own large eyes staring curiously back at her.

The voice was gruff, but not completely unpleasant, as the creature spoke. "Have you gotten yourself lost as well?"

Betsy tried to be brave, but she was at a complete loss for words. The very sight of this large, scaly beast had whatever words the astonished Oklahoma girl wanted to utter lodged in her throat. "U…um…uhh…"

The dragon's head tilted curiously to the side. "There's only one way you could have gotten in here, after all. You don't need to worry, though. As much as I am terribly hungry, I would not shame my heritage…nor would I shame the Great Tititi-Hoochoo…through the act of eating someone I know nothing about."

Betsy's voice was inescapably timid, although it helped to be assured that she was not in any immediate danger, and her confidence slowly restored itself as she spoke. "I…I-I wish I…I had somethin' t' give you, um…mmmister drag'n…t' eat, that is…but I only have somethin' which…which has been helpin' me find my way 'round these caves."

"Well, unless it's a bundle of raw, freshly-grown meatstalks, I don't think whatever you have will satisfy my hunger, little girl." The dragon assured. "By the way…as much as I _am_ a dragon, I do have a name. I am Quox, descendant of this world's firstborn dragon."

"An' I'm Betsy Bobbin, from Oklahoma." She curtsied, respectfully, to the scaly dragon. She was now feeling a different kind of nervousness now. She never imagined she would actually talk with a real live dragon! "N-nice t' meet ya. So…how did y' get in here? Those doorways don't look large enough for a drag'n, t' be kinda honest."

"That's because I wasn't in the form you're seeing now when I came in here." Quox replied. "Many of our kind can assume other forms, and the most popular of dragon disguises has been the human one. I particularly like humans because the better ones…the ones that aren't so full of themselves, or who are just plain bad…are such humble, and often funny little creatures. I usually take the form of a kind old man whenever I'm running errands for the Great Tititi-Hoochoo."

Betsy frowned, her own head tilting to the side. "Who's that?"

"You don't know him?" The dragon's eyes widened in disbelief. "He's only the most fearsome, and well-respected of jinjins! Don't they know about jinjins in your 'Oklahoma'?"

Betsy shook her head. "'Fraid not. They're all too busy farmin', or herdin' cows."

"Well, the Great Tititi-Hoochoo is only the most fearsome, and the most well-respected jinjin in all the land!" Quox explained. His voice then went discreet as his serpentine head lowered close to Betsy's ear. "Don't let this get around, but…I was sent here to punish the Nome King."

Betsy also kept her tone hushed. "Really? Why?"

"He used something even immortals like him are forbidden to use. A conduit leading to the other side of the world called the Hollow Tube." Quox answered. "We don't know why he used it, but we know enough about Roquat to know that whatever reason he may have used it must have been an unwisely selfish one."

"So they sent you t' kill 'im?"

"Kill? Noooo, little Betsy. The Great Tititi-Hoochoo is all about upholding justice, not committing murder." Quox clarified. "So I came to the Nome Dominions in the form of an old man, and I was able to slip into their caverns discreetly. I had thought the 'lost old man' act would fool those little nomes into allowing me an audience with the Nome King, but I was confronted by his steward, instead."

Betsy nodded. "Kaliko, right?"

"I should _never_ have trusted that little nome." Quox regretfully admitted, lowering his head. "I knew nothing about him, though. For all I knew, I thought he'd take me right to Roquat."

"He led me an' two oth'rs here, too." Betsy noted. "King Rinkitink, an' a goat named Bilbil. We came with a boy that Roquat turn'd into a nome, too."

This last bit widened Quox's eyes once again in his surprise, and he rose his head back up. "Dear me! Did this boy _want_ to become one of the nomes?"

Betsy shrugged. "I don't think so."

"If he didn't, then that's _another_ reason to punish the Nome King!" Quox firmly remarked. "To force someone to become something they were not born to be? Truly, Roquat must face justice for these indiscretions!"

"So…why can't y' jus' turn back into an ol' man, an' maybe we can find a way out o' here?" Betsy curiously asked.

"Because, as I said, I'm hungry." Quox distressfully admitted. "Using magic requires energy, after all, and…well, I was lucky enough that the room suddenly became a cavern so I could assume my natural form. I've been here for days now, Betsy. I really need food!"

In her sympathy for her new, scaly friend, she felt compelled…at that moment…to take the right-hand archway. Betsy wondered if her sympathy, and her desire to somehow help Quox out might have something to do with it.

Quox noticed her curious and subtle flinch. "Hmm? What is it, Betsy?"

The Oklahoma girl obviously didn't know for sure, but she felt compelled to follow her instincts as her eyes went to Quox. "Maybe…I can find you some food. I'll be right back."

Quox's eyes followed Betsy in admiration as she moved through the archway. When the dragon heard the rumblings and felt the tremors of the shifting caverns, he then worried for the Oklahoma girl's safety as his head settled back down onto the cavern surface.

Betsy made her way through about five archways, and in different directions every time, as her hand kept a firm grip on the white pearl. She eventually came upon a room no different from any of the other 10' x 10' rooms she had passed through, save for the fact that there were two occupants here.

There were also, much to Betsy's surprise, plants growing along the ground. The surprised Oklahoma girl could smell food as well.

One of the occupants was significantly familiar to Betsy for the fact that it was a furry, four-legged and horned goat. The woman kneeling in front of him was apparently feeding him strips pulled from a head of fresh lettuce when Betsy arrived.

Bilbil had to swallow before he spoke. "Betsy?"

The young woman feeding the goat was a very pretty sight to behold. Her short blond hair was hidden beneath a red adornment on her head which seemed to suggest, in texture as well as appearance, the petals of a rose. The rest of the green outfit she wore had the texture of natural, healthy leaves. Smaller leaves could be seen upon this outfit as her pale head and her unnaturally striking pair of eyes went from Bilbil to Betsy. A pair of deep red lips smiled upon sighting the Oklahoma girl.

"Is she a friend of yours, Bilbil?" The girlish young maiden asked the goat, in a very lovely and cutesy voice.

"Yes." Bilbil confirmed. "Yes, she is."

Her next words immediately made Betsy curious as the maiden's head turned back to Bilbil. "Does she know?"

The goat's response was in a firm tone. "No, and I'd like to keep it that way, if you don't mind."

"OK! OK! No need to be all _scruffy!_ " The fingers of the giggling woman's free hand rubbed affectionately through the goat's fur. She then rose up and stepped over to the room's newest occupant, offering a pale-skinned hand. "Hi! My name's Ozga. Nice to meet you, Betsy!"

The Oklahoma girl shook the offered hand, but the name fired up her curiosity. "Ozga? That sounds kinda familiar. Do y' know a fairy named Ozma?"

"Yes! She's my cousin!" Ozga confirmed. "Wow! Small world!"

"So…you're a fairy too?" Betsy asked.

"Mm-hmm!" Ozga nodded, still smiling sweetly. "I came here to find my brave and handsome friend who tried to rescue me from that horrible Royal Gardener of Oogaboo! He came out of nowhere and picked me from among all the other roses! The Gardener caught him, however, before I was able to thank him, and he banished the both of us here! He separated us, too!"

Betsy frowned in her confusion, although she continued to find Ozga's eyes particularly enthralling. "You were a…a rose? I thought y' were a fairy."

"Well, I was a fairy until the Royal Gardener of Oogaboo came along and caught me walking around his Rose Garden!" Ozga replied, moving up close to Betsy, and pacing idly around her as she spoke. "He got so stuck up that he turned me _into_ one of the roses! Told me the only way I could be freed from the spell was if I was picked…and since he doesn't let _anyone_ trespass on his garden, I thought I'd _never_ get out of there!"

Betsy then gestured to the ground, where the plants were growing. "Did…did you…make those?"

"Mm-hmm! These caverns are kind of damp, so I was able to grow things, including the lettuce I was feeding your friend." Ozga stopped in front of Betsy, still smiling as she tilted her head to the side curiously. "Did you want some?"

Betsy blinked out of her mild enthrallment over Ozga's very appearance. She had a pleasantly fragrant scent about her in addition to her eyes, and it proved a touch distracting. "Huh? Oh, no, thanks…but, I know someone who's a _lot_ more hungry. Can y' grow meatstalks?"

"Sure can!" Ozga confirmed, nodding her head. "But…if I do this for you, could you, um…mmmmaaayyyybe help me kinda-sorta find my handsome friend? I know he's here, but…well, only one of those cute little brown nomes told me he could help me find him, but then he led me to one of these twisty caverns! Once I stepped in, I tried to find my way around, but I…I just kept going around in circles! I thought I was all by my lonesome here, until this cute goat came along."

"Uh…do y' know if your friend is somewhere in these caves?" Betsy asked.

Ozga shrugged. "I don't think so…but then, these twisty caverns can't seem to lead me _anywhere!_ "

"I think I can help us find our way around, Ozga." Betsy assured, effectively lighting up the plant-like fairy's face in her interest. "You're not th' only one that's lost here. I met someone else who could help us, but he's awful hungry an' needs as many meatstalks as you can grow. There's also a really big man called Rinkitink that I need t' find, too."

"Oh! The goat's _other_ friend, right?" Ozga asked.

"That's him." Bilbil confirmed. "These caverns are probably driving him crazy, too. Maybe we should listen for insane laughter and bad jokes while we're looking for him."

As Betsy suddenly found herself inclined to take the right passage, it seemed obvious who the white pearl wanted to guide the Oklahoma girl towards. "Let's get movin', then. I know where we need t' go."

"You _do?_ " Ozga's eyes widened as she grasped Betsy's arms, her mouth agape in her shock. "Can we find my handsome friend first? _Pleeeeeeeaaaase?_ "

Betsy looked skeptical as she carefully replied. "Well, I'm sure we could…"

The flowery fairy suddenly pouted, her fists clenched. "You'd better help me find my friend, or…" She glanced to Bilbil. "…or I'll make you just as scruffy-looking as your goat!"

"Ozga, I'm _not_ her goat." Bilbil reminded, rolling his eyes.

Betsy raised her hands in restraint as she quickly spoke. "Ozga, relax! I nev'r said I wouldn't help you! Look…I'm seein' that ev'ryone's bein' trick'd into goin' in these caverns by th' same person. I'd like t' know why myself, but…I wanna be able t' help out without bein' turn'd into anythin'."

Ozga's face once again turned cheery. "Oh, don't worry, silly. I won't do anything to you. You sound like you really want to help anyway…but if I find out you were lying to me, your new goat name will be 'Betbet'."

Ozga giggled cutely at this thought, while Betsy's own giggle was a far more nervous one as the group followed the Oklahoma girl to the right archway.

"So you said you _used_ to be a fairy?" Bilbil asked their new companion as the group walked.

"Yup! But I couldn't be any kind of a fairy if I became a rose, could I?" Ozga replied. "Ever since that really nice man plucked me from the garden, though, my magic powers are starting to come back to me. I figured since I had been turned into a plant that my powers would be more, you know, flower-based. Make things grow and stuff. I wouldn't have been able to feed Bilbil otherwise."

Betsy nodded. "Makes sense…but would there be any way y' could go back t' bein' a full fairy?"

Ozga shrugged. "I heard it's got something to do with a really strong swell of emotion, but that's just fairy rumor. So I guess I'll have to take a real long walk back to the Forest of Burzee and talk to Queen Lulea."

Four archways into their seemingly impossible journey, the group began to hear the sound of laughter coming from a voice that Bilbil immediately recognized. The laughter, however, was unhinged and wild. It really did sound like the rotund ruler of his eponymous kingdom was on the verge of losing his mind, if he hadn't lost it already. With a silent and wary glance to each other, Betsy resumed her progress through the twisting caverns, with her friends following close behind.

Another four caverns later, and with the laughter growing louder as they closed in, they finally saw poor Rinkitink rolling about on the floor, lost to an apparent bout of hysterics. His eyes boggled as he continued his laughing fits, even after his eyes fell upon the group.

After a moment, he seemed to recognize those he knew. "Ohhh! It's _you!_ " He struggled to his feet as it seemed like he was beginning to calm down. "I guess everything will be all… _right_ now! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH! HAH-HAH-HO-HO-HEE-HEE-HEEEE!"

And he rolled around once again in hysterics. Bilbil couldn't help but roll his eyes upon hearing yet another bad joke from the King. Betsy and Ozga, however, couldn't help but look very worried over Rinkitink's admittedly unhinged appearance.

"F-forward! Forward, yes?" He muttered to himself, his eyes boggling. "Another six times! Maybe another sss- _seven!_ And make it _right_ this time…or there will be nothing _left!_ BAAAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAAH!" He then banged a fist against the ground. "Nothing left…nothing left…nothing left…"

Betsy immediately dropped to the ground to hold the pudgy King's sweaty face in her hands, bringing his wide eyes up to meet her own even as he continued his mad laughter. "Your highness, please calm down! I can get us outta this place! Trust me!"

"OOOH-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOOOH! Y..you know the way… _oooout?_ " Rinkitink finally seemed to be interested, but in the next moment, he looked and flailed his arms around wildly as he senselessly whined. "How many rights? How many lefts? Right left right left right left right right right Bet Sy is all ways right right ri… _mmmmf!_ "

Betsy had been gently pushed out of the way from behind by the rose-like fairy, who planted her beautifully red lips against the large man's own lips and kissed him deeply as Rinkitink's eyes boggled once again with this sudden and unexpected initiative.

After a moment, the round-bodied king's eyes went half-lidded, and when the smiling fairy pulled away, Rinkitink looked quite sedate.

"Well! I guess we can't go _anywhere_ now, can we?" Bilbil griped. "Why did you have to put him to _sleep?_ Now, we gotta wait until he…"

"No we don't, silly goat!" Ozga responded. She then grabbed one of the king's wrists. "He's still conscious! I'll just…lead him around until we're out of here. Don't worry! He's fine."

"Ehhhhh." Rinkitink then uttered. Every so often, this blissed noise would be heard from his slightly-open mouth.

Betsy placed a hand, gently, on Ozga's shoulder. "Let's see if we can find your friend now."

She then stepped towards an archway, but no directional urge could be sensed. The logical conclusion, or so Betsy surmised, was that this 'handsome friend' was elsewhere.

Sighing, the Oklahoma girl turned her head to their fairy companion. "I don't think he's here, Ozga. I'm sorry. Maybe he's someplace down here oth'r than these trick caverns. I know a friend that might be able t' help us find 'im."

Although Ozga looked a little crestfallen over what she was told, she nodded in acknowledgement. "Let's go to your friend then."

Betsy couldn't help but be reminded of foghorns as Rinkitink made his occasional semi-conscious utterances during their trip back to the dragon's cavern. It took twelve archways for the Oklahoma girl to finally reach the large cavern where she knew Quox was located.

And, thankfully, the seemingly benevolent dragon was still there, breathing slowly as he indulged yet another nap.

The eyes of both Bilbil and Ozga widened in awe upon spotting Quox. "You made friends with _that?_ " Bilbil incredulously whispered.

"Hey! Show some r'spect! This is a _good_ dragon!" Betsy frowned accusingly to the goat. "His name's Quox."

One of the large eyes of the dragon opened once again, confirming his new friend's presence. "Ahh, Betsy. These must be the friends you mentioned."

As Quox spoke, Ozga passed her glowing hands over a portion of the ground. After a moment, nine thick, ripe meatstalks of the bovine variety sprouted from the hard surface.

The fairy girl smiled to Quox, gesturing to the offerings. "And these must be the meatstalks you wanted."

The dragon's head moved quickly over to hover above the stalks, giving them a curious whiff to confirm that they were indeed real. Seeing as how they were, he opened his mouth and pulled one such meaty stalk out of the ground.

Rinkitink's eyes began blinking slowly, and then rapidly as they opened wide, signifying the end of his magically-induced sedation. His eyes then fell upon the goat. "B-Bilbil? Where am I?" The rotund monarch's attention was then diverted to Quox as he continued to feast upon the provided meatstalks. "Dear me! What is _that?_ "

"You've never seen a dragon before, your highness?" Bilbil mused.

Rinkitink shrugged, smiling. "I have, actually." After a moment, he added "In the skies far above, that is."

Upon hearing his voice, Betsy hurried over to him. "How're y' feelin', your majesty?"

"Like I've just had a good night's sleep, actually." Rinkitink replied as his eyes scanned the large cavern around him. "Hmmm! Finally…an area that doesn't look like all of those other shifting chamber blocks."

"Yeah…I wond'r why?" Betsy asked, to no one in particular as she pondered the conundrum. "Quox said when he came in here, it was no diff'rent than the oth'r rooms, but then it turns into this big cavern?"

Quox had swallowed down his sixth meatstalk offering as Betsy spoke, and the large dragon turned his head to the little girl. "I know enough about the Nome King to suggest that he may have _wished_ for the chamber to become a cavern. He knew I was weak, and he didn't want to see his trick caverns wrecked, so he made the room I was in a little more suited to my natural form."

"So it jus' changes?" Betsy frowned in confusion. "Jus' like that? No tunnelin' or anythin'?"

"If we're dealing with a nome that has the power to magically have his own wishes granted," Bilbil ominously observed. "we may _never_ see Prince Inga restored."

Rinkitink rubbed at his chubby chin. "But if Kaliko wanted us to help him supplant Roquat…"

"That may have been a red herring, your majesty." Bilbil interjected. "A way to sucker us into these trick caverns. He probably uses these caverns as some kind of prison."

"That kinda makes sense." Betsy remarked. "Quox was sent here t' punish Roquat for his crimes. He was tricked into goin' into these caverns, jus' like we were."

"So we're just gonna keep going around and around in an endless loop?" Ozga asked, her tone a touch distressed.

Betsy gripped the white pearl in her pocket…

…and her head turned to the left passage, answering the urge the pearl's wisdom had transmitted.

"Maybe not." Betsy quietly answered. She then turned to the dragon…

…but the giant creature was no longer there! Three fresh meatstalks remained idle and untouched as well.

Looking around for Quox, Betsy caught sight of a brand new occupant. He was a human man with a head of short, well-coiffed gray hair. He had a semi-athletic build, and he wore a hoodless, sleeveless robe that had the same sky blue color the dragon's body scales sported.

He was also looking right at the Oklahoma girl. When their eyes met, the old man smiled. "All ready to go now, Betsy."

Betsy frowned. It seemed obvious, but she wanted to be sure. "Quox?"

"Yup!" the old man confirmed. He then struck a pose, showing off his human form. "What do you think? Nice, eh?"

The Oklahoma girl tilted her head to the side slightly. "Is that how y' looked when Kaliko found you?"

"Not exactly." The disguised dragon replied. "My appearance was a little more frail and weak. This look is a bit more…athletic, seeing as how we may be doing a lot of walking. They may know who I am anyway if they see me, but…" He then gently placed a hand on Betsy's shoulder. "…well, at least now, unlike the last time, I won't be alone."

Betsy nodded, smiling. She then turned and gestured to the remaining plants Ozga had grown for Quox. "We should grab those oth'r meatstalks, in case someone gets hungry."

"I prefer _cooked_ meatstalks!" Rinkitink whined as he carefully pulled the stalks out. "Raw ones won't do at all."

Bilbil smirked. "More for me, then."

The group followed Betsy as she went through the left archway exit from the large cavern, subsequently beginning a trek that would take them through _eleven_ archways before Betsy finally stopped, a way expression on her face. The room they were in was no different from the dominant pattern of block-like rooms.

Betsy had been fed a direction courtesy of the white pearl, and the option was indeed available.

Based on her assumptions, however, she was hesitant to use it.

Quox curiously stepped over to the Oklahoma girl. "What is it, Betsy?"

Sighing, Betsy's eyes went to the old man. "We need t' go _up._ "

* * *

They were _everywhere._

Dorothy had picked up on the scent first, and the Lion subsequently acknowledged it.

And then, they emerged. From all sides. They waited until the group reached the middle of a very large chamber before beginning their advance.

Nomes.

A LOT of nomes. All of them short in stature, with silvery white wisps of hair, skin the color and texture of smooth, gray stone, and not a single female among the entire, innumerable hordes. They were all variously armed and armored, as well, as they converged on the visitors from Oz that they had very quickly surrounded.

Dorothy, Trot, the Scarecrow, Nimmie, and the Lion gathered together in a circle, bravely facing the approaching, screaming warriors as they pointed their polearms, their maces, their blades, their clubs, and their swords towards the group.

Despite the overwhelming numbers, the Lion visibly readied himself for a fight. "C'mon! C'MON, ya little runts! I'll fight yaz with one paw tied behind my back! Jus' try sum'thin! I _dares_ ya!"

"Mercy me…" Dorothy began to feel quite intimidated over the sheer numbers. "…there's so _many_ of them!"

"I'm not scared!" Trot also looked upon the growling nomes defiantly, bringing her fists up.

The Scarecrow, however, knew that such bravado would be foolhardy. "Everyone stay defensive! Don't let them goad you into striking first!"

And indeed, the nomes did keep within a short distance of the entourage from Oz. They growled, they screamed, and they shook their weapons as they stood there in their respective fighting stances, prepared to surge upon the group the moment they dealt so much as a single, deliberate strike.

The Nome King's booming voice then resounded through the room. "DO NOT HARM THEM, BROTHERS! THEY ARE MY GUESTS! ESCORT THEM TO ME AT ONCE!"

A portion of the veritable sea of nomes then parted, forming a narrow, unobstructed path towards a wide archway to the group's right.

As this was happening, the Scarecrow felt a tug at his blue jacket, and he looked down to see Trot gazing up at him. She then discreetly showed him something that made his eyes widen.

"Should I?" Trot quietly asked.

The straw-stuffed advisor thought on this, but figured that the initiative the former California girl was suggesting would have been an ill-timed notion, and he therefore shook his straw-stuffed head.

"Not yet." He whispered. "Keep that out of sight, though! Let's play along with this for awhile."

The group walked slowly and calmly towards the archway with polearms pointed threateningly at their backs by the nome soldiers that followed them.

Dorothy moved next to the Lion as they walked. "That was an admirable display of bravery, my king, for you to be so willing to fight against impossible odds!"

The Lion, however, just kept walking. He had a strangely neutral expression on his feline face, as if he were hiding something.

"You were afraid, weren't you?" Dorothy then asked, her furry ears lowering.

"Terrified." The Lion fearfully answered, keeping his neutral expression. "Even when I was talkin' tough, I was scared outta my mind."

The canine girl's eyes widened. "You didn't _look_ like you were scared."

"What can I say?" The Lion shrugged. "I'm good at _hidin'_ it."

A short hallway beyond the large room led to a slightly smaller, but otherwise magnificently spacious room, which was otherwise dominated by a large stone throne upon which several varieties of precious stones were encrusted in a nice-looking pattern. Upon this royal seat sat a round-bodied old man with a long white beard, white eyebrows which flared at the outer ends, and a long mane of white hair. As was the case with the other nomes around him, he also had gray, stone-textured skin. The red outfit he wore looked similar to a pair of long johns, and a gold, gem-encrusted crown sat upon his head. In his right hand, he held a gold scepter. Around his waist, he wore a wide, tan-colored strap upon which several small gems were encrusted. Each of these gems gave off a minor glint as Dorothy's gaze curiously lingered upon it.

Roquat's eyes scanned everyone in the group as they were brought into the room, taking note of their unusual appearances as they gathered together in front of him.

"Is there no end to these tin-crafted people?" The Nome King first observed as his eyes fell on Nimmie. "I've already had to deal with _one_ such upstart. I trust I will not have any problems with _you,_ my dear?"

Nimmie knew he could not be referring to her husband, and she was a bit astonished for the fact that Roquat may have potentially confronted the _other_ tin man she knew. "Did this…'tin-crafted person' have a sword?"

Roquat nodded. "Unlike you, yes."

Nimmie's eyes widened. It was indeed Fyter. "And…how have you dealt with him? You didn't destroy him, did you?"

"Oh, no. I am a monarch, not a monster." Roquat calmly replied. "I just figured he would be better suited as a lovely ornament than as a brash representative of his little…flock." Ignoring Nimmie's confused expression, the round nome regarded the rest of the group. "Greetings, all of you. I am Roquat, the king of the nomes and the ruler of these vast and magnificent dominions. What brings a man made of straw, that tin-plated maiden there, and a trio of furry beasts past my mighty iron sentinel outside?"

The Scarecrow stepped forward to address the gray-skinned nome ruler in a cordial tone. "Greetings, King Roquat. I am the Scarecrow, royal advisor to the princess Ozma of Oz, and these are my friends." He gestured to the others as he spoke, indicating each in turn. "The tin woman is Nimmie Amee, Empress of the Winkie Country. The monkey was once a human girl from California named Trot. The dog was also once human, and was a girl from Kansas named Dorothy Gale. The lion next to her is the great king of the beasts in the Quadling Country. We come before you in request of the company of one among your people to help us free some friends of ours from a terrible enchantment that…neutralized them."

"Hmmmm." Roquat rubbed at his chin as he thought on this. "And there is no way your princess Ozma can aid you?"

"The princess Ozma is among those who have been neutralized, your majesty." The straw-stuffed advisor hesitantly admitted.

"And there is no one more capable of ruling to succeed her?" Roquat asked next. "Perhaps the Empress there could expand her empire by taking your land into her collective?"

"Well, we _do_ have an interim ruler other than Nimmie, but this is a temporary measure." The Scarecrow responded. "We should like to, however, see Ozma back upon the throne, as she is a most benevolent and capable ruler."

"And a _fairy,_ if I am not mistaken." Roquat noted. "Another protector of humankind. I am not surprised that she has inherited a land such as Oz. Are you looking for any specific nome, I wonder?"

The Scarecrow shook his head. "Any one of your nomes will do, your highness."

Roquat leaned forward in his seat now, still looking wary. "And…would whichever nome I send with you be in any particular danger? Would there be any risk of…needless sacrifice?"

"Oh, no, good king." The Scarecrow raised his gloves in restraint. "Quite to the contrary. Whomever you would send will be treated most cordially. He will receive whatever accommodations would grant him comfort during his stay. Once he is done, we can see to his swift return to your dominions."

"Yet, a nome cannot be truly happy unless he is underground, straw man." Roquat answered. "To be away from the warmth and the relative safety of these caverns of ours, for any long period of time, would bring great displeasure to one of my people."

The Scarecrow struggled for a logical workaround to this conundrum as the Nome King's eyes drifted over to his three furry guests. "Uhh…perhaps…we can have him stay in the _basement_ of our royal palace?" The straw-stuffed advisor next suggested.

Roquat's eyes fell upon the Lion. "Such a magnificent beast. And a ruler of animals, no less. Leadership must come naturally to you, furry one."

"Actually…" The Lion began rubbing his hands together nervously. "…I'm just a big ol' _coward._ I…I'm afraid a' my own shadow sometimes."

Roquat arched a flared eyebrow. "You were brave enough to get past the mallet of our iron guardian, were you not?"

"They _made_ me do it!" The Lion whined. "I offered ta stand guard outside, but…"

"Indeed. Peer pressure can compel others to transcend their limitations." Roquat's eyes fell next upon Dorothy. "And you? I see a firm and determined gaze in those eyes. Perhaps a much more potent furnace of resolve burns within you."

"I'm here to help my friends, your highness." Dorothy answered.

"And perhaps, to help yourself to _this?_ " Roquat gestured to the gem-encrusted belt he wore around his waist. He then leaned forward in his throne seat once again. "Do not think I did not notice your eyes lingering upon it. Perhaps instead of conspiring to steal it, you should protect it for me! Keep others from stealing it, eh?"

"But I'm not interested in your belt at all!" Dorothy replied. "I told you. I'm here to help my friends!"

"Then perhaps, you can begin by finding the tin woman's friend?" The round-bodied nome then suggested. "I will tell you exactly where I have put him."

Nimmie immediately stepped forward. "Your majesty…it is for personal reasons that I be the one to find Captain Fyter. I must humbly insist on this."

"Yes…the long-eared hearer once told me, long ago, of the affections you once shared for each other, Empress." The Nome King thoughtfully observed. "Even though he is not the man you eventually married."

"I still owe him, your highness." Nimmie countered. "Please let me do this."

After a moment of thought, Roquat finally nodded. "You will have three chances to find your friend. Should you find an ornament in there that you believe to be the man called Fyter, you need only point a finger upon it and speak this land's name, which is 'Ev'. If your guess is correct, Fyter will stand before you, fully restored."

Nimmie nodded. "And if I should fail three times?"

A menacing smile was now on the old nome's face. "Then _you_ shall become a brand new ornament for my collection."

"Perhaps…I should come with her, your highness." The Scarecrow quickly offered.

"ONLY ONE PERSON AT A TIME! The Empress will be going in _alone!_ " Roquat growled. "And then, _you_ will get your chance, so-called 'Scarecrow'."

"How will we know if she made a correct choice?" Dorothy curiously asked.

"We shall hear the chiming of a bell." Roquat replied. "As the Empress may take as much time as she requires to make her choices, the rest of you will demonstrate patience as you wait your turn. You have my word as the ruler of these dominions that you, the Lion, and the monkey called Trot will be catered to as per your respective tastes."

The Lion sighed, frowning to the red-clad nome. "Awright, nomey…we'll play ya little gamey, but whoeva we can break da spell on gets ta leave wit us, see?"

Roquat smirked at this. "If you're going to go _that_ far in your lack of manners, I think I shall…sweeten this deal." The gems on his belt now began to twinkle like stars in the sky as he placed his gray hands over it. "I wish that for every failure of my ornaments challenge, the Quadling Country Lion, and then the one called Dorothy Gale for the next failure, and then Mayre Griffiths for the next, will whole-heartedly desire to remain in the nome dominions and serve as loyal guardians for me and my Magic Belt for the rest of their days, or until the highly unlikely event of a successful guess!"

The leonine king, the canine Kansas girl, and the former California girl all felt the same twinge of magic tickle through their bodies as Roquat uttered his wish, and a look of horror was now on their furry faces, as well as on Nimmie's. Nothing more occurred, but they knew that if Nimmie failed, one of them would spend the rest of their lives serving as a bodyguard for the grinning Nome King, who next clapped his hands twice.

"Food and drink for my furry guests!" Roquat called out. "They will _need_ their strength if they will be bound to me!" He then signalled for a particularly militant-looking nome to step forward. "General Blug…escort the tin woman to the entrance to my Ornaments Chamber."

With a look of contempt to the Nome King, the tin-plated empress followed the bespectacled General over to where she needed to go to begin her effort to not only save Captain Fyter, but to keep her other furry friends free from unwanted eternal servitude as well.

* * *

 **NIMMIE**

Blug did not say a word, and otherwise marched with military precision, through the hallways of the dominions towards the Ornaments Chamber as Nimmie followed behind him. Upon making a right turn, she saw a wide archway, within which the glints of several shiny objects could be seen as she closed in on what had to be the chamber itself.

Having no idea as to what manner of ornament Fyter was turned into, she tried to remember aspects of the good Captain's personality, hoping it would help her locate the brave freedom fighter who sought to make a stand against the terror of the Wicked Witch of the East during his days as a flesh-and-blood munchkin.

Things he liked. Things he ate. They had to serve as clues. She went into the Ornaments Chamber looking confident as the General pulled a curtain closed behind her.

When she turned to look upon this curtain, she saw that once the curtain reached the other end of the space, the curtain suddenly became a thick and sturdy brick wall. Obviously a precaution, Nimmie surmised, and an assurance that none who accepted this challenge would have the luxury of giving up and trying to escape the room at any time.

The empress then turned her attention back to the many different varieties of ornaments, of which there were hundreds…perhaps _thousands_ …of glittering bric-a-brac which were neatly arranged. They were in various sizes and colors, as well, and some of the ornaments hung from thin, but firm strands of spider silk attached to the ceiling. Machines, animals, toys, houses, tools, food, even people in some cases. If it existed or it was created anywhere on Earth, there was likely an ornament in the collection that was emulating it.

Nimmie began by taking a slow and generalized pace, like a self-guided tour, around the whole of the ornaments room, scanning around the various bric-a-brac and getting an idea for the path she needed to take to be able to capably negotiate the room. She noticed that the chamber itself, as well as the path, formed a large, looped circuit, like a rectangle with rounded edges, and the now blocked entrance was the only way into and out of the room.

It was on her second pass around the room that the tin empress began taking a closer look at the ornaments now. According to Roquat, at least one correct guess would be required to avoid the grave consequences of failing outright. Having three chances, she hoped that she'd get lucky with at least one of them.

She then spotted a small purple ornament in the shape of a man with a sword. This man didn't look anything at all like Fyter, but Nimmie was willing to chance this one for the fact that it was purple, and she heard that Fyter had become a commanding authority among the soldiers of the Gillikin Country.

Her tin-plated hand pointed a finger at this ornament. "Ev."

She had hoped to see kaleidoscopic lights, if not just a flash of light, followed by a restoration. Sounds of surging magic. She wanted to see the ornament levitate to the skies, and then reveal the form of Captain Fyter.

Unfortunately, that result only played out in her mind, as the ornament remained as it was, and did not move an inch, nor react to Nimmie's voice.

One attempt was now spent.

Nimmie considered what Fyter had originally been before the Wicked Witch of the East had cursed his sword, as the old crone had done with her husband's axe. Like Nick, Fyter was a munchkin once, and she wondered if there was another soldier-like ornament in the array that was blue in color. As her eyes glided over the ornament semblances of a large yellow pumpkin, a pink carriage pulled by horses, a white knight, and a red gorilla, she spotted an odd and formidable-looking blue construct that sported a large cannon at its head. Although Nimmie found it quite odd-looking, this shape corresponded to the earliest incarnation of the intimidating weapon of war known as a Tank.

Nimmie brought her tin finger up again, pointing to this tank. "Ev."

The room remained quiet, and nothing happened. The ornament remained where it was. It did not move, nor did it begin to change at all.

Nimmie's eyes closed in her lament. The tin empress now had only one chance left. Either she was going to get lucky, or one of her friends would be bound to the Nome King for the rest of that person's life, and she would become the room's newest decoration.

When they opened back up, they looked upon the idle white knight. Clad from head to toe in metallic armor, and standing at attention with a sword and a shield. The ornament looked like a stoic chesspiece as it stood behind the semblance of a cute purple kitten.

Nimmie seemed entirely intent to let the white knight serve as her last guess. It seemed so terribly obvious. It was a metal man who had a sword. Even though the color was off, her notion of relying on colors got her nowhere.

She had a mind to scan just about every single ornament in the chamber, but as large as the chamber was, this seemed entirely futile to her. Nimmie instead did another, more gradual scan around the sea of glittering bric-a-brac.

Yet, her mind dwelled upon the white knight. So much so that she found her gaze skimming along the ornaments as she went.

And now, she was back in front of the white knight, which now seemed like a beacon to her. The one true choice, it seemed, and her potential salvation in this mad contest.

She was entirely hesitant, however. The man she once loved would either appear before her, or the Winkie Country would lose their empress. She once again considered going through each and every single one of the ornaments in the room.

In the next moment, she brought her tin-plated hand up, the arm lightly squeaking as it moved. She spoke the land's name a third time, her finger aimed directly at the white-armored crusader.

At the entrance, the solid wall once again became a curtain, following the bright flashes of light and the sound of crackling magic Nimmie had hoped to pay witness to.

What followed, however, was complete silence.

* * *

"…and the great wizard gave him a beautiful-looking medal in recognition of his bravery!" Dorothy explained to Trot, who listened closely to the canine girl's story of how the Lion was recognized for the courage he never thought he had by the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.

"Wow!" Trot exclaimed. She then tilted her simian head curiously. "Was there a Legion of Courage back then, though?"

Dorothy shook her furry head. "The Lion created it with the help of his friend, the Hungry Tiger."

"Dat was somethin' da wizard mentioned, but…dere never was any Legion anywhere in Oz." The Lion added. "So I gets me an idea ta bring his woids ta life, an' make a group a' beasts who go all around da land, doin' good!"

"And I'm still one of them, right?" Trot asked.

"Ya sure are, kid." The Lion confirmed. "You an' Dorothy, who as she is now, is my actin' mayja'-domo. Dat means second-in-command, a' course…but even if yaz wasn't beasts, ya'd both still be honorary membas!"

"Well…how am I doing so far?" Trot wondered aloud, looking up to the taller lion meekly.

The Lion smiled, and began to answer…

…but his body then tensed up as a more powerful twinge of magic surged through him, and his feline eyes boggled. "Hoooh…. _hoooooooooh!_ "

Trot now looked worried, as did Dorothy. The Scarecrow, standing nearby, stepped over as well. "Your majesty?" Trot asked. "Are you all right?"

Dorothy's eyes then turned to the Nome King, who was looking right at the lion, and who was rubbing the tips of his index finger and his thumb together with a menacing grin on his face. "Psss-psss-psss. Heeeere, kitty, kitty. Settle yourself at my right side now."

The lion's furry face now looked around at people he suddenly could not trust. People he knew nothing about, and so he barked threateningly at each of them before moving towards Roquat, responding to his request without hesitation.

Dorothy's eyes lingered on the Nome King, her furry ears lowering. "She _failed._ "

A look of horror was on the Scarecrow's face as he took a moment to comprehend this. "But…that means _you're next,_ Dorothy! If…if I fail…y-you…"

As the Scarecrow spoke, the canine girl kept her gaze on Roquat.

Only her expression was going from one of fear…to one of defiance. "I'm going in next."

" _You?_ " The round, gray man's eyebrows rose up as the lion settled himself into a feline sitting position next to his new master. "But you are a potential _prize,_ furry one! Just like my lion here." He settled his hand upon the Lion's head, and the leonine guardian smiled upon feeling the nome's touch.

"You can have the smartest brains in Oz instead if I fail!" Dorothy indicated the even more horrified Scarecrow as she yelled. "I _won't let you keep my king!_ "

As much as the Scarecrow wanted to call out the word 'heel' in his desire to stop Dorothy from taking this terrible risk, he could not. He hated exploiting the weakness Blinkie had implanted against his dearest friend's will anyway, even if it meant saving her life.

The Nome King leaned forward towards Dorothy, a thoughtful frown on his face as she glared back at him. "As you insist, dog. This new magic inherent in the wish I have uttered upon your very name shall keep you from inheriting the consequence that has made the tin-plated female one of my ornaments. Should you fail three times, your allegiance shall be to me for the rest of your life, whether you wish it or not, and you shall forever remain a furry beast, always ready to defend my rule with fang and claw."

Roquat's head moved to General Blug, and he gave the militant nome a single nod. The bespectacled nome then moved up to Dorothy as she stepped over beside the smaller man.

" _DOROTHYYY!_ " Trot called out. She rushed over to her, but the Scarecrow grabbed her before she could get close.

" _Please_ be careful, Dorothy!" The Scarecrow pleaded.

The canine girl, however, did not turn her head back to acknowledge them. She simply followed Blug over to the curtained ornaments room, although she certainly heard what they had said to her.

All that mattered to her now was to free the Lion…to free her King…from his unwanted, eternal servitude to Roquat.

* * *

 **DOROTHY**

Her initial thoughts upon scanning the room was more or less the same as Nimmie's. She gave herself a quiet tour of the room after acknowledging the wall that had magically replaced the curtain, her human eyes scanning over the thousands of ornaments and bric-a-brac within the room.

She stopped in front of a white ornament wearing the regal robes and the crown of a queen. The color had a touch of silver to it.

As Dorothy was now part-canine, her instincts compelled her to sniff upon it. Perhaps she could pick up traces of tin in this ornament, and she would be more assured of her choice.

There were, however, no such traces. All of the ornaments smelled quite the same, in fact.

As this was only the first of her three choices, she ultimately decided to take the risk as she pointed a padded finger of her paw-like right hand to the white queen. "Ev."

Her furry ears lowered regretfully as silence followed. The ornament remained a motionless semblance of a white queen.

One choice spent.

She sighed out, dreading her next failure. At least she would be with her king if her effort was going to end in complete failure. Even if they would be bound to a gray-skinned nome.

She wondered if, perhaps, a correct guess would be something radically different. Something that would not be expected, and that would have nothing at all to do with the natures of those who had been transformed into these glittering decorations.

The worst that could happen was that she would have only one more guess to make.

Stopping in front of the white knight, her eyes went to the cat in front of the knight, which had a royal purple color. She brought up her claw-tipped, padded finger. "Ev."

A flash of light suddenly flared around the ornament, apparently turning the ornament into a royal purple-colored mist, which then surged in front of Dorothy to form the shape of a young human boy!

The sound of a bell chiming followed as the boy looked around confusedly. "Huh? Wh…where am I?" His eyes then fell upon the canine girl. "Who are _you?_ "

Dorothy still had a shocked expression on her face as her ears shot straight up. Her wide-eyed, furry face looked the same as when she first laid eyes upon the Wicked Witch of the West when she first saw her after landing in Munchkinland.

She couldn't believe it! She made a correct guess! It may not have been Fyter or Nimmie that was freed, but Dorothy had still won the Nome King's challenge!

"I…I'm Dorothy Gale, from Kansas." The canine girl lowered to a furry knee in front of the fair-haired boy. "Nice to meet you. What's your name?"

The young boy bowed in front of the furry girl respectfully. "I'm Evring." He then scanned the area around him, his eyes skimming the remaining ornaments around them both. "Do you know where my mommy is?"

"I wish I knew, Evring." Dorothy replied. She then gently placed a padded hand on the boy's shoulder. "But I can take you to a couple of people who will see to your safety, as I will, until we find your mom. Would you like that?"

Evring nodded his wide-eyed head. "Uh-huh!" He then followed Dorothy as the both of them walked past the curtain that had once been a solid wall. "So…what are you? I've never seen anything like you. You look so…fluffy." Evring asked, his expression now curious as they walked.

Dorothy smiled. "Well…I used to be no different from you, but a wicked witch cast a spell on me and turned me into what's called a dog. She wanted one of her own because she knew I had one."

Evring frowned. "That doesn't sound very nice. If she wanted a dog, she should have tried to find one. Not that I would know where I _could_ find one. Are dogs nice?"

"Oh, they can be _very_ nice." Dorothy replied. "In fact, in the land where I come from, we call them 'man's best friend'. If you treat them well, they'll be your very best friend."

"Wow!" Evring smiled now. "I wish I had a dog. I mean…a dog that wasn't once a human."

Dorothy giggled at this. "I hope you're responsible enough to own a dog, Evring. You have to remember to feed your dog, show your dog lots of love and affection, and take your dog for walks every so often so he or she can get plenty of exercise. Do you think you can do that?"

Evring nodded once again, eyes still wide with interest. "Uh-huh."

The two of them heard a lot of loud growling and complaining as they neared the throne room, and all of it in the voice of the Nome King, who was obviously very displeased over Dorothy's successful turn.

"…should have been more careful in the wording of my wish! Now I'll NEVER have…" When he caught sight of Dorothy and Evring returning to the room, his tone quickly became cordial, and he forced a smile. "…congratulations, young one. Ah! I see you have freed one of the Royal Family of Ev. Pity you couldn't find your tin-plated empress, or the man she once loved, but…" His eyes went to the Scarecrow. "…perhaps your vaunted brain can figure out which of the ornaments was once your tin friends, or perhaps another member of the royal family."

The canine girl also noticed, as Roquat spoke, that the Lion was no longer seated next to the Nome King. He was back alongside the Scarecrow and Trot, and was quite relieved to see Dorothy again. The overjoyed anthropomorphic dog rushed over to wrap her furry arms in the freed lion's warm hug when the smiling, leonine monarch opened his arms to welcome her back.

All eyes turned to the fair-haired little boy. "So who's ya new friend, Dorothy?" The Lion asked.

"This is Evring." She gestured to the boy, and then knelt beside him, looking up to her comrades. "Evring, these are my friends. This straw-stuffed man is the Scarecrow of Oz, the monkey is Trot, and the lion here is the king of the Quadling forest in the land of Oz. Trot used to be a little girl from California, but…well, like me, she's under the spell of a wicked witch, too."

"We have four really powerful wizards in Ev." Evring noted. "Maybe they can help you change back."

"If we can get ourselves outta _dis_ predica-ment, dat is." The Lion observed.

Dorothy looked a little puzzled now. "What did Roquat mean about his wish? I heard him shouting and screaming before."

The smile returned to the Lion's face. "Ya did far bettah dan ya thought when ya freed dat boy, doggie. When ya freed me, ya broke da whole wish about dat nome gettin' a personal guard."

"So…if the Scarecrow, you, or Trot fails, we won't become his guards?" Dorothy wondered aloud.

"Nope!" The Lion confirmed. "Not anymore."

Roquat leaned forward, eyes flaring with rage. "YOU CAN _STILL_ BE TURNED INTO AN ORNAMENT IF YOU GUESS WRONG!" His eyes then turned to the Scarecrow. "As _you_ will soon discover if those brains of yours fail you thrice!"

The straw-stuffed advisor frowned as he looked to Roquat. "If Dorothy can do it, then _so can I!_ With brains as good as mine, I bet I can free the whole family, Nimmie, Fyter…and maybe even a few _others_ who failed your rotten game!"

"As perfect as you believe your brains to be, stuffed one, there is always the very real possibility that you might overthink things, yes?" The Nome King mused. "Off you go."

By virtue of Roquat's observation alone, his friends now began to worry for the Scarecrow as he followed General Blug to the Ornaments Chamber.

* * *

To live the life of a nome within the vast dominions is to know that a nome must constantly work, and that unlike most species which exist between the genders of males and females, there was not a single female nome anywhere in the dominions, nor anywhere in the world, for that matter. This is not to say that nomes did not have any interest in females. Indeed, the Nome King himself has been rumored to fancy the beautiful fairies of Burzee, a forest within which only animals and fairies are permitted to inhabit.

The dominant manner of work performed by nomes is to engage in mining. To go anywhere within the dominions is to hear the varying volumes of the pickaxe-like tools used by the nomes striking against hard surfaces so as to dislodge the precious stones embedded within. Those that are collected are then accounted for and brought to the Nome King, who upon their dismissal slyly and discreetly scatters them beneath the earth once more for his diggers to unearth once again, thus creating an indefinite amount of work for his people. There have been a few among the nomes to notice this propensity, but their words of complaint either fall on deaf ears, or they're acknowledged and subsequently ignored. Particularly stubborn nomes pressing the issue are charged with insubordination, and are either tortured into submission, brought to the dreaded slicing chamber, or fed to the many-headed canine beasts kept by the nomes. Those that are sliced are subsequently fed to the dogs as well.

To be a nome called down for an audience with the Nome King is to be forced to acknowledge, more often than not, an unrepentant bully. There are those moments where Roquat can be reflective and even insightful, but he usually reserves those moments for when he is with creatures other than nomes, hence his…insightful approach to Prince Inga, despite the impulsive initiative which made a nome out of the once-human boy.

It is out of their evident disdain for Roquat's bullying ways that a high majority of the nomes do indeed defer to the king's steward, Kaliko, who they contrarily view as someone worth trusting and confiding with, even though there is little the crafty nome could do to alter whatever initiatives Roquat was intent on carrying out for whatever reason. But whenever Kaliko was not around, there have been moments where small groups of nomes congregate in areas which they believe to be safe from prying or scrying eyes and ears to engage in a bit of gossip.

One such moment had a handful of the gray-skinned humanoids gather around a particularly grumpy nome during one of these breaks in the mining routine. They were six in number here, the grumpy old one included, and they chose an area near an alcove as their "secret" place.

"Lots of visitors from above as of late." One of the nomes observed. "Oz people, too."

"Not all of them are from Oz, Kless." Another nome interjected. "Two of the furry ones used to be humans, and they came from that outside world."

"I heard one of them killed two witches." A third nome added. "We should keep our eye on that one. Maybe she's a witch herself."

"If she were still a witch, then how come she looks like a dog?" A fourth wondered aloud.

The third one shrugged. "Maybe she's under a curse."

The fifth nome in the group looked a bit contemplative. "I wonder what Oz is like? I'd like to visit there someday."

The grumpy one finally spoke out in a nasty growl. "No you don't! Those Oz people are so despicably _happy!_ I _hate_ that! How Roquat can stand all that sickening contentedness without wanting to turn everyone in the Emerald City to stone, I'll never know!"

Kless had to chuckle at this outburst. "Oh, calm yourself, Guph. It's not like Chig there wants to take you with him, after all."

"Better take an egg with you, Chig, in case ol' Guph tries to stop you, eh?" The third nome mused. With the obvious exception of Guph himself, everyone else laughed at this.

Guph's eyes flared angrily at the third nome, however. "Hey! You mind your tongue, Blat! It's blasphemy to speak of that which can destroy a nome!"

Blat shrugged. "When's the last time you saw eggs anywhere in the Nome Dominions?"

"Don't jinx it, Blat." Kless warned.

"Ehh, those surface people will probably wind up in the Ornaments Chamber anyway." The first nome remarked, waving a hand in dismissal.

Guph now chuckled with genuine amusement. "I heard that tin man with the sword wound up in the form of a small blue soldier wearing armor in the chamber."

The first nome looked to Guph curiously. "Wasn't there something particular about what happened to that king's royal family?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, the Ev people." Guph responded. "I've told you more than once, Frell. The ornaments are all royal purple in color. They were all spread out, too. I personally made sure of that. Having them all in one place would have made them too obvious."

The second nome spoke out again. "What about those two Ev wizards?"

"Bah! Good riddance to that lot, eh, Guph?" Kless mused.

Guph grinned malevolently as he turned his gaze to the second nome. "You should have been there for that masterpiece of a moment, Yorg. Roquat made a wish upon his Magic Belt the moment they made it into the caverns. He literally struck them both dumb! They had these vacant stares in their eyes when we found them. Didn't even send them to the chamber to try and rescue the royals. He just turned them into dull gray gems and had them tossed into the Metal Forest. Only thing they had on them was some kind of empty jar."

"He should have kept it as a memento." Yorg mused.

"He did, actually." Guph replied. "He calls it his 'victory cup' now."

All six of the nomes laughed now, confident in the notion that aside from the remote possibility of the long-eared hearer picking up on their words, their gossip went unheard.

Shortly after the nomes dispersed from this gathering spot to get back to work, however, a pair of disembodied voices spoke silently. Neither voice was noticed, as the group of nomes that once stood there was now well out of earshot, and tinking away with their tools.

"Did y' catch all that?" a young female voice whispered.

"I sure did." An older male voice whispered back.

* * *

"Poooooor, pooooor, Dorothy." The Nome King mused, grinning evilly unto the canine girl, whose furry ears were lowered as she whimpered in the Lion's arms lamentedly. "Pooooor, pooor Dorothy. I may not have you as my personal guard, but I at least have your Scarecrow now, as one of my _ornaments!_ Did I not _warn_ you that he would overthink his guesses?"

"Ya've got da foulest a' mannahs, shorty!" The Lion growled.

"Oh?" Roquat arched an eyebrow. "Perhaps _you_ would like to take a…"

Kaliko had signalled for the king's attention at the entrance to the throne room, and Roquat stopped speaking to regard his steward curiously.

"A potential act of treason was picked up by the long-eared hearer, my king." Kaliko reported. "He heard your guests from Pingaree writing messages on the ground regarding some kind of plot to escape. We have the decrepit old man from Butterfield outside."

"Hah! Bring him in, then!" Roquat jovially exclaimed. "We shall make an example out of that annoying vagabond, and send a message to those foolish new prisoners of mine!"

As Kaliko gave a slight bow of acknowledgement before turning to briefly leave the room, Trot tilted her head in curiosity. "Vagabond?"

The Nome King smirked unto the monkey that was once a human girl. "A homeless man. A shaggy wanderer. This one is especially annoying for all those ridiculous 'ideals' of his."

Kaliko stepped back into the throne room, and behind him was the very same Shaggy Man who had been with King Kitticut, and the rest of the crew from the grounded flying ship that was christened the Oz Dirigible _Betsy Bobbin_.

Once again, Roquat turned his eyes to Dorothy. "I seem to recall that some time ago, you turned a very naughty old shoemaker into…a dove, yes? He seemed to be quite happy with what he had become, too."

Dorothy frowned. "Wh…why would you bring that up?"

Another menacing smile formed on the Nome King's face. "Because in the absence of your Scarecrow friend, I fancy the both of you will become a whole lot closer." His eyes went to the Lion. "Is she not your temporary…'majordomo', was it?"

The Lion lowered his head while keeping his angry eyes on Roquat, a menacing expression of his own forming on his furry face. "Ya'd best mind yer own beeswax, tubby…or I mights fah-get my mannerers." He growled.

Roquat grinned, in his amusement, upon hearing the Lion's threat. He then turned his gaze to the shaggy old man looking innocently up at him. "I show my hospitality to you and your friends, and you show your gratitude by conspiring to flee my comforts?"

"Begging your majesty's pardon, but I had actually _warned_ them against doing this." The Shaggy Man calmly replied. "I even told them about the long-eared hearer."

As the Shaggy Man spoke, Dorothy…who was still in the Lion's arms…felt compelled to tighten her furry arms, which were wrapped around the Lion's torso. She leaned into him affectionately, closing her eyes. The Lion gently shushed her, rubbing a padded hand into her hair as her ears rose up, and her tail wagged slowly back and forth behind her.

"Well, that was _awfully_ considerate of you, old man." Roquat replied to the bearded old vagabond. "And yet, I know for a fact that you were among those spelling out your messages to each other. Always advising caution, and warning more often than not, but never suggesting that they put a stop to their futile plan of escape. And that, old man, was _not_ very considerate."

The Shaggy Man shrugged. "With all respect, we are not as accustomed to living beneath the ground as you are. You have to expect that they would eventually need to return to the climate where they are at their most comfortable."

The Nome King amusedly smiled as a wicked idea percolated in his mind. "That can be arranged, you know."

The old man then lowered to his knees, still looking up at the white-haired, gray-skinned monarch. "Then I do humbly ask that they be released, so they may go back to their homes, and allow me to remain here, as I always have since you found me, and brought me here."

Roquat then rose from his seat. "Very well." He then raised his hands up and pointed the palms of his gray hands down. Waving them in semi-circles, he spoke the incantation in a low tone. "Adi, edi, idi, odi, udi, oo-i-oo!"

The Shaggy Man felt odd as the nome spoke the incantation. He did not expect an abundance of feathers to begin covering his skin beneath his shaggy outfit, which began to bulge as the skin on his mouth and nose hardened as his eyes widened.

Still waving his hands in semicircles, he completed the second verse of his incantation. "Idu, ido, idi, ide, ida… _woo!_ "

The old man's arms had blossmed an extreme abundance of white feathers to the point where they were now a pair of wings as his size diminished and his face began to stretch forward in his shock. As Dorothy, Trot, and the Lion watched in horror, they saw the Shaggy Man settle into a brand new form, and upon recognizing it now realized why the Nome King brought up the end result of her encounter with Ugu.

Because like that defeated usurper, the Shaggy Man had also become a very nervous-looking dove.

Trot frowned as her simian eyes went to Roquat. "Hey! You _lied_ to him!"

The Nome King looked, amusedly, to the monkey. "Yes." He replied, matter-of-factly. His eyes then went to Dorothy and the Lion. "Now…as much as I would want to see how well your relationship blossoms, I'm afraid that…"

Roquat stopped himself, looking around curiously. Obviously, something was amiss. Even Kaliko looked puzzled as he began looking around the throne room area.

As confused as Dorothy, the Lion, and Trot was, the Nome King's next words made the resident curiosity very clear.

"Where did that boy from Ev go?"

* * *

With everyone's attention on the Nome King's confrontation with the Shaggy Man, it was quite easy for little Evring to slip away undetected. Such was the talent he had developed through games of hide and seek with his brothers and sisters, all of whom were now locked in motionless royal purple shapes in the room he was now hurrying back into.

Memories of how everything suddenly went black returned to him. He was actually the last of his siblings to be sent to what Roquat had called the "Toys Room". The crafty nome had told him to pick three ornaments…by pointing at them and saying "Ev", of course…and they would transform into full-sized toys that he could play with, unaware that he was actually condemning himself to become one of them.

His first instinct, however, was to hide as he passed through the curtained entrance, letting the closed drapes harmlessly slip over him as he moved. Carefully, he stepped around the array of bric-a-brac…

…but when his eyes once again went to the curtains, he saw that a solid wall had replaced it!

A wave of terror now settled over the fair-haired boy as he walked slowly around, afraid that everything would go black once again, as it did before. He began to shake uncontrollably as he stopped and lowered to his knees fearfully. He didn't want to go black again…

"Hey!"

The hissed, silent voice was not acknowledged, and the boy continued to quiver with terror, fearing that everything would go black at any minute.

" _Hey! Lil' boy!_ "

Now, Evring's head jerked around worriedly. He definitely heard the young female voice this time around. "Hello?" He whispered loudly.

"Don't be afraid! I wanna help you!" the voice hissed. "What's your name?"

"Evring." The boy replied. "Who are you?"

"Uhhh…" a short moment of silence followed. "…Bill."

Evring frowned, realizing that the voice sounded much too feminine to answer to a name like Bill!

"I…I mean, Bi- _Billina!_ Sorry…I'm Billina!" the whispering voice corrected.

Evring tilted his head to the side. "Where are you?"

"I…I'm…huh? _Invisible?_ Yeah! Right! I-I'm an invisible magic…um…hen!" Other voices seemed to be whispering in a much more quiet tone as 'Billina' spoke. "I'm floatin' above you, an'… _will you all shut up, please?_...um, an'…an' no one can see me! Not ev'n you!"

"Then…how can you help me?" Evring asked, his head still tilted upwards towards the apparent source of the voice.

"Do y' know anythin' 'bout this room?" 'Billina' asked.

"I…I went black in here." Evring nervously replied. "That's not gonna happen to me again, will it?"

"No! No, not at all!" 'Billina' assured. "You'll be fine! Jus' trust me, an' do as I say, OK?"

Although Evring still looked very hesitant, having lowered his head in his uncertainty…

…he slowly brought his head back up, and nodded. "Okay."

"Great! Don't you worry 'bout a thing!" The whispering, disembodied voice responded. "Now…look around those ornaments for one that's purple. Can y' do that?"

Again, Evring nodded. He then wandered around the path within the ornaments chamber until he sighted not one, but _two_ ornaments that looked purple to his young eyes.

The problem, however, was that they were two different shades of purple.

"Which one?" Evring quietly asked. "There are two here."

"Pick one, point to it, an' say 'Ev'!" the whispering voice instructed.

Evring's eyes widened in horror. "No! I'll black out again! You _told_ me that…"

"Shhhh! Keep your voice down!" 'Billina' hissed back. "If you're wrong, nothin's gonna happen. Don't worry!"

The young boy looked at the ornaments. One was a really nice-looking representation of a horse and carriage, with a regally-dressed couple riding in the carriage. The other was a cute-looking Teddy Bear.

Evring's finger first pointed to the bear, seeing as how he had one just like it back home. "Ev."

As nothing had happened, it was obvious that Evring had guessed wrong. Much to his relief, however, he did not black out.

"See? You're still with us." 'Billina' confirmed. "Now…look at that oth'r ornament. Try t' r'memb'r that color. Now go ahead an' do th' same thing."

Evring nodded slowly. Swallowing hard, he brought his finger up to the horse and carriage. "Ev."

A flash of light turned the horse-and-carriage representation into a thick purple mist, which then formed the shape of an older woman. Evring let out a yelp, fearful that he was deceived, and everything would go black for him once again.

But when the mist cleared away, the little boy's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. The regally-dressed woman looked initially confused, but when her eyes came down upon the fair-haired child that freed her, she, too, had a similar expression.

Because she was looking upon one of her five sons, and he was looking upon the shocked face of his mother.

Evring rushed forward as the Queen of Ev lowered to a knee and opened her arms to receive her youngest son's embrace as happy tears ran down his eyes. She let her own tears of joy run freely as she held her son in a tight, but comfortable grip. They also heard the chime of a bell.

She then kissed her son on the forehead and looked him right in the eyes, smiling. "My dearest Evring!" She then looked around her surroundings. "Where are we? What happened?"

"Billina helped me free you, mommy!" A beaming Evring answered as he wiped away his tears.

The Queen frowned in her obvious confusion. "Billina?"

"That's me! The invisible magic hen floatin' high above!" 'Billina' whispered. "Okay…let's find some more ornaments in that same color, an' do th' same thing!"

"Can mommy help me?" Evring eagerly asked.

"She sure can!" 'Billina' confirmed. "Jus' tell 'er which ones t' pick!"

Evring nodded, and then invited his mother to point a finger at a royal purple-colored candy cane. Upon speaking the name of the land, another flash of light turned the ornament into thick mist, which gathered in front of them and dissipated to reveal a cute young girl in blond ringlets they both recognized to be Evanna, one of the Queen's five young daughters. Once again, a bell chimed in the wake of the mist's passing.

The bell was heard once more when a thick mist that was once a royal purple rose evaporated to reveal another of the Queen's daughters, this one named Evrose. Thick mist that was once a strong, royal purple-colored stallion ornament parted to unveil another of the Queen's sons, Evington, who had been freed by his own mother. A bell signalled his freedom as well.

Evington was eager to free another of his brothers, but the ornament he chose turned out to be Evella, one of his sisters. Smirking as her bell chimed, and ever in competition with Evington, she brought up a finger at another royal purple ornament, brashly declaring it to be Evirene. When the mist cleared and the bell chimed, however, it turned out to be her pudgy brother Evroland instead, and Evington couldn't help but chuckle.

The Queen spotted a royal purple knight in a suit of magnificent armor, and upon pointing at it and speaking the word "Ev", the Queen's oldest son…the adolescent Evardo XV, who was heir to the throne that his cruel father, Evoldo, abandoned in his demise…stood before his relieved mother as his bell chimed. They all agreed that Evardo, who all of the children respected, should be the one to free the remaining children, and upon explaining how it needed to be done, Evardo freed his sisters Evirene and Evedna, and then his little brother Evrob.

The reunion was bittersweet as the entire royal family hugged each other in their relief once the initial confusion over their respective restorations had passed. When the nature of their mutual benefactor was explained, it was Evardo who looked up and addressed the invisible hen.

"Not that we are ungrateful for your help, my unseen friend…" Evardo began. "…but I wonder if we could actually look upon our savior. Would you be willing to show yourself, Billina?"

A moment of silence followed, after which 'Billina' whispered her reply. "Uh…gimme a few minutes, OK? Jus' sit tight!"

About three minutes later, however, the patiently-waiting Royal Family of Ev found themselves surrounded by a group of angry nome warriors that stormed into the Ornaments Room, and they were led away to the throne room where a furious Roquat sat, waiting to question them about the one who had so unexpectedly restored them all.

Before little Evrob left the chamber, however, he picked up a small blue soldier ornament that appealed to his young eyes, and slipped it in the pocket of his waistcoat.


	14. XIV: The Wizards of Ev

**XIV: The Wizards of Ev**

Making their way back from the space above the Ornaments Chamber, Betsy Bobbin, Quox, Ozga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil returned to the 10' x 10' trick cavern they were in before the white pearl had directed for them to ascend to the ceiling, where large spaces permitted them to eavesdrop on not only Guph and the nomes he was speaking to, but also allowed them to observe and communicate with the occupants of the Ornaments Room as well.

It was this latter encounter which compelled Betsy…who had, in her desperation to think of an alternate guise, cast herself in the role of "Billina, the invisible magic hen"…to bring the group back to the trick cavern to discuss options.

It was this alternate guise which was on the mind of the goat as he spoke to Betsy. "An _invisible magic hen?_ "

Betsy shrugged. "It was all I could think of! I guess I was thinkin' 'bout what those nomes said about bein' afraid of eggs. Well…hens lay eggs, so I made up Billina."

"And what a really cute idea that was!" Ozga cooed.

"But now, the royal family wants to _meet_ this hen." Quox noted. "Now I… _could_ arrange that, but…I can't just generate a hen out of thin air. Only someone as powerful as the Great Jinjin can do that. But I _can_ use raw, living material to create one for a short period of time."

"How long?" Betsy asked.

"The enchantment would last for a single day's time." Quox replied. "It won't hurt a bit, either."

Betsy nodded, turning away thoughtfully from Quox as he rose his glowing hands up behind her. "So…I guess one of us gets t' be a hen for a…" She then began to feel strange as white feathers began to sprout from and bundle upon her body beneath her servant's outfit. "…a d-dayyy-yyy…"

Feeling a fleshy growth hang beneath her chin, she saw her mouth and nose harden and push forward, forming a beak. Her curly hair seemed to recede as more white feathers covered her head and neck. Her young body shrank and bloated to become the frame of a healthy fat fowl as her arms blossomed a pair of white-feathered wings. Skinny, four-clawed avian feet stepped out of her human footwear as Betsy's still human eyes widened, looking down upon the hen's body that Quox had so obviously given her!

She then looked up at Quox, who shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "Why _me?_ " Betsy whined in protest.

"I'm sorry, Betsy…but I did say this would be temporary." Quox replied. "At this time tomorrow, you'll be back to your old self."

"I know, but…I thought we could draw straws or somethin'!" Betsy remarked, still a little thrown by the feel of her new, smaller fowl form.

"I'm afraid you still would have been our Billina, Betsy." The old man replied, once again shrugging. "I don't enchant fairies, so I couldn't pick Ozga. Rinkitink is royalty, and I don't change rulers who are fair and just with a majority of their people. Bilbil here is…well, he's already suffering from something he didn't want, so I couldn't transform him."

Betsy frowned curiously as her eyes turned to the goat. "Sufferin'?"

Bilbil's tone was firm and very serious in his reply. " _Don't ask._ "

Rinkitink smiled down to Betsy. "Besides…with you being as you are now, you can also provide us with one other very important element we will need to be able to quite possibly free all of us from these caverns."

Betsy tilted her now-feathered head to the side in her confusion, feeling the fleshy hen's ridge on her head flop a bit.

She also noticed that the others were looking upon her as well. All except Ozga, who was apparently creating something using her fairy magic. When her glowing hands came away from an area she was concentrating on, it became clear what they wanted Betsy to do.

Because Ozga had created a comfy-looking hen's nest.

"Oh, now _wait_ a minute." Betsy protested. "Y-y' don't really think I'm gonna…"

"Betsy, they said eggs were a nome's weakness." Bilbil noted. "You're the only one, at the moment, who can give us that."

The hen sighed, lowering her head. "I know…but, well…I-I've nev'r been a hen b'fore. I dunno what t' do…I mean, I've been on a farm, but…I've nev'r _work'd_ on one!"

"Well, maybe I could give the waiting time a little nudge." Quox responded, gesturing to the nest as Betsy's hen's feet began to hesitantly walk towards it.

The hen wobbled a bit, as Betsy was logically unaccustomed to walking with this new body shape, and the weight differences that came with it. Upon settling into the nest, she felt a pleasing warmth run through the fullness of her fowl frame, and she sighed out contentedly.

Betsy obviously had no idea what it would feel like to actually lay an egg, and she was quite nervous over the prospect of doing this…

…but if it meant helping her friends, she was entirely willing to give it a try.

She did not have to wait very long before she felt a fullness form within her gut. Instinctively, she began to caw and crow as the feeling became much more intense. Betsy then felt a large, round, warm object below her resting feathers. Ozga lifted the hen up with her slender hands to reveal the healthy white egg she had successfully laid. Quox picked the egg up carefully, after which Ozga settled Betsy back upon the nest.

"There we go." The disguised dragon held up the egg to examine it. "And one egg is all we're gonna need from you, Betsy."

The hen nodded, smiling. "So? Don't keep me waiting! Is it a boy, or a girl?"

* * *

Roquat had them all lined up in front of him in the large room that was outside of the throne room entrance. The horde of nome warriors had the Lion, Trot, Dorothy Gale, the Queen of Ev, all ten of her freed children, and King Kitticut stood before the Nome King, who was quivering with rage over the constant ringing of the bell that had signified a successful ornament selection.

The gray-skinned nome walked slowly in front of the lined-up prisoners, scowling up at them as he passed. "If I could still wish upon my Magic Belt, I would make pure diamond statues out of you all! Needless to say, for all the trouble you have brought us, you have _no chance_ of winning what you came here for! _None_ of my nomes will leave these dominions to aid you for _any reason!_ "

At that point, Kaliko walked into the large room, headed towards Roquat. Another younger-looking nome walked alongside him, staring amazedly around the spacious area as they approached the nome monarch.

"Inga!" Dorothy softly confirmed, recognizing the way the boy was dressed.

Roquat hurried over to scowl up to the canine girl. "His name is _Ingot,_ dog. Out of the curiosity I have for that which humans call a 'family', I have made little Ingot that which you call…a son."

"Son?" Trot frowned in her confusion. "But…who's his mom?"

"Ingot will only have a father! A 'dad', so to speak!" The Nome King growled stubbornly. "And I shall _be_ that dad to him!"

"Dat's not how a family is, nomey!" the Lion growled. "Ya don't just takes people ta be ya kid!"

Kitticut, who had been observing the entire time in silence, was now in shock upon seeing his young son wearing a nome's body. His eyes boggled, and his mouth hung open in his disbelief. He was particularly aghast at what the Nome King was now saying about his dearest boy.

"You're _mad!_ " Kitticut yelled. "He's not _your_ son, no matter what form you give him! He's _mine!_ "

Roquat fired a finger over to the old king of Pingaree. "NOT ANYMORE, HE ISN'T! Do you really think he would want to leave the comforts of his new home after seeing just how _lovely_ our Metal Forest is? He shall be dreaming about it no matter _what_ he is…and by my own powers as an immortal, he shall always remain what he is now."

"NOOOO!" Kitticut cried out, dropping to his knees, tears forming in his eyes as he collapsed into a sobbing fit, his hands reaching out to the nome that was once Inga. "Nooo…my boy, my dear boy…"

"Yer a real snake, Roquat." The Lion disgustedly remarked, fixing an angry gaze upon the Nome King.

Dorothy couldn't help but growl loudly as well as she fixed an angry stare upon the round-bodied, red-suited nome.

Roquat arched an eyebrow amusedly as he turned to the growling canine girl and the Lion. "Make a move towards me, and you shall be hopelessly and impossibly overwhelmed. I field the largest army of warriors in the whole of the nonestic isles. I could overcome even the mighty armored soldiers of the land of Ix with sheer numbers if I wanted to!"

"If ya say so, shorty." The Lion now had an odd smile on his furry face. "Personably, I don't tink any of 'em stand a speck of a chance against…" He then gestured to Trot. "…dat monkey dere."

Trot's eyes widened. "Huh? _Me?_ But…" She then realized why the Lion had singled her out. "…oh."

Nome warriors now began closing in on Trot, surrounding and encircling her. They slowly began approaching the monkey girl, who now looked very nervous.

Roquat smirked to the Lion. "Shall we put that to a test?"

She then began chittering and screaming in a simian fashion. Nomes grabbed her from all sides and began to hold her down…

…but Trot threw her arms out to the sides, raising herself up from the ground effortlessly and shoving the nomes that were on her to the sides! Balling one of her hands into a fist, she reared it back as another tough and muscular nome moved in on her. When the monkey girl's punch solidly connected with this nome's chin, he sailed up and over in a wide arc, landing far from where Trot was standing.

Dorothy began sneaking over towards the Nome King as he expressed his shock over what he was seeing. "FOOLS! SHE IS BUT A SINGLE MONKEY! _OVERWHELM HER!_ " Roquat called out.

Empowered with the super-strength of Pon's pearl, which she had placed in her mouth and under her simian tongue, Trot began swatting and striking away a great many nomes that tried to grab and strike at her. Some of her blows even shattered their best and most deadly-looking weapons before a follow-up punch sent them flying. Not one nome in the entire horde could hold onto her, nor strike her, at all. Contrarily, the monkey that had once been a young girl from California was beginning to enjoy the one-sided battle that had ensued. Nomes seemed to be flying everywhere as they continued to surge in towards the unexpectedly strong monkey girl.

As she struck away another group of attacking nomes, she raised her furry fists to the sky in exultation. "AWOOOOO-WOO-WOO-WOO-WOOOOO!" She cried out, proudly emulating her baboon friend. She then continued her battle with the nomes.

Dorothy needed only a couple more steps to be able to attempt a grab on the gem-encrusted strap wrapped around Roquat's waist. As he continued to scream and rant over the inability of his nome hordes to get a hold of Trot, the canine girl was finally able to grab the area where the belt could be fastened, and she found it surprisingly easy to slip the belt off of the Nome King's waist.

Roquat felt the movement of the belt too late to keep it from leaving his body, but he turned his shocked gaze behind him, and saw Dorothy attempting to distance herself from the gray-skinned monarch.

Eyes wide, and flaring with fury, he jumped and screamed where he stood, shooting a finger towards the retreating canine girl. "THIEF! THIIIEEEEEF! _SEIZE HER!_ SHE HAS MY _BELT!_ "

At the same time, Kitticut was able to grab and pull Inga by his skinny gray wrist and rush into the now unoccupied throne room, subsequently hiding from what was going on in the outer room.

The nome warriors now turned their attention to Dorothy, and Trot found herself at a disadvantage. She now had to get through a sea of nomes in order to reach and defend the canine girl, who was racing towards one of the room's exits as fast as she could with the king's belt in one furry hand.

The Lion was able to move in behind Dorothy to cut loose with another loud and bellowing roar, but this only recoiled and hesitated a little over a handful of the nomes that ran towards the canine girl. Everyone else ignored the Lion as they closed in on Dorothy.

The door remained far from her. She needed to cover a LOT of ground to be able to reach it, and the nomes were almost on her. There was no time to even try to use the belt herself. She just kept running as fast as her digitigrade legs could carry her.

Now determined to stop her by any means necessary, the Nome King, focusing her eyes on the fleeing canine girl, began waving his hands, inhaling to be able to call out the incantations for yet another crippling spell that was sure to stop this furry thief…

…but a strong blast of wind, however, surged against not only Dorothy, but the charging nomes as well, knocking all of them down! From the shadows above them all, a large, reptillian beast sporting sky blue scales dropped down a few feet in front of the canine girl, who had stumbled to the ground over the unexpected disturbance.

Upon spotting this large creature, Roquat's eyes widened with fear now. He knew exactly who this creature was. "N-no…not you…it…it _can't_ be!"

It did not take long for Quox to be able to spot the now terrified Nome King. Once their eyes met, a circlet of glowing magic resembling a ribbon surrounded Roquat's neck for a moment before disappearing with a flash and a loud bang. This bang resounded in the nome monarch's head, which he placed his hands to in a brief but evident agony. When the pain subsided, he found himself incapable of remembering any magic incantations at all!

When the dragon settled to the ground, two humanoid figures that were riding on its back carefully slid down its scales. One was a large and jovial-looking man wearing a king's crown, and the other was a young woman with striking eyes and a curiously floral outfit that seemed to suggest green leaves. This one held something furry in her hands, which she placed upon the ground. A glow surrounded her slender hands as they hovered over the horned, furry, four-legged creature, which was revealed to be a goat once he was restored to his proper size.

Dorothy had dropped to a furry knee, panting rapidly in her exhaustion, her tongue lolling despite herself. The nomes pursuing her were obviously keeping a distance, presumably because of the dragon that had landed very near to where she was recovering.

Their eyes, however, were on the fat monarch. Or, more accurately, on what he was carefully cradling in his arms.

Roquat, obviously enraged over the fact that his capacity to cast personal magic had been stripped from him, looked to his now fearful nome horde. He practically hopped where he stood as he screamed. "WHAT ARE YOU _WAITING_ FOR? _GET MY BELT BACK!_ "

But the soldiers were all saying the same word as their gazes lingered on the hen comfortably held by the ruler of the land called Rinkitink. General Blug himself, who commanded a majority of the horde, found himself muttering the same word.

"Eggs…eggs…" they all whispered under their breath. Some of them pointed to the hen as they recoiled. "…eggs…"

"BLUG!" the Nome King called out to the General. "COMMAND THEM TO CHARGE! OR I WILL HAVE YOU SLICED!"

"THERE IS A _HEN_ AMONG THEM!" Blug fearfully yelled back.

"BA- _KAAAWK!_ " The hen loudly called out, visibly startling the nome hordes.

Roquat himself gasped aloud in horror upon hearing, and then spotting, the fowl in Rinkitink's arms.

"Is that…Billina?" Evardo asked aloud as he and the rest of the royal family joined the smiling king.

"It's gotta be!" Evring responded.

The frowning dragon's large eyes lingered on Roquat as he spoke. "She laid _lots_ of eggs, too! A whole _army_ of them, you might say!"

Quox's scaly tail whipped around in front of him gracefully as he spoke, and he then traced a straight line with its light bulb-like tip on the ground in front of him. As the tip ran across, a row of round, solid white cylindrical shapes, all of them standing upright, could be seen.

Gasps and yelps of shock could be heard by the nomes. " _EGGS!_ " many of them yelled, pointing fearfully at the line of eggs…

…which now began to move along the ground towards the Nome King!

Roquat, of course, recoiled in complete horror as the eggs advanced, and indeed, they were moving like a marching army. "NOO! Please! _Don't let them_ _touch meeee!_ " The nome monarch wailed as he backed away.

Quox, in the meantime, was forming line after line of eggs one after the other, moving forward in perfect formation. Some of them split off to begin approaching the nome horde, and the large room was now filled with the sound of screeching, stammering nomes who turned tail and ran wildly from their marching anathema.

The hen turned her head to the dragon. "An' you said y' only needed _one egg?_ "

"Well…it's been awhile since I've actually seen a hen's egg, Bets…I mean, Billina." Quox sheepishly admitted. "I needed to get an actual egg before I could conjure more of the same."

"So all dose eggs is not real, eh?" The Lion wondered aloud as he and Dorothy moved closer to the dragon. "Heh…dey looked real enough ta me."

"Oh no, those are real eggs." Quox confirmed. "Compliments of the Great Jinjin, Tititi-Hoochoo. Defender of truth and justice all over the nonestic isles."

While the nome hordes were able to escape the marching eggs, Roquat himself was not so lucky. In fact, there were a great many eggs encircling him now, and he practically curled up into a badly-quaking fetal ball in his fear of the round white objects, which had stopped a short distance from the terrified nome monarch.

"Hmmm. I tink I've heard o' dat Jinjin guy." He settled a furry arm around Dorothy's shoulders as he explained. "Not a guy ya wanna cross, doggie." He then looked back to Quox. "So he sent ya, huh? What crime did dat nomey commit?"

"He used the Hollow Tube." Quox replied.

Moving his arm off of the canine girl's shoulders, the Lion gasped in his surprise, stepping closer to the dragon. "He _didn't!_ "

"Yup! Never asked permission, either." Quox responded.

Trot frowned in confusion. "What's the Hollow Tube?"

As the Queen of Ev was close enough to the monkey to hear, she stepped over to Trot to answer. "That's a passageway to the fairyland ruled by the Great Jinjin, which is on the other side of the Earth. The nonestic end is in a forest near the entrance to the nome dominions, and it's very well concealed, too." The Queen then turned her head to Quox. "But why would the Nome King have any interest in the Great Jinjin's lands?"

"One needs to look to the strap Roquat wears around his waist to know why." Quox answered.

As Quox and the others spoke, Dorothy moved up close to the hen. "You know…you sound a lot like a friend of mine."

The hen sighed in her embarrassment. She spoke in a hushed tone. "Let's put it this way. Right now, I'm Billina. T'morrow, I'll go back t' bein' Betsy Bobbin."

The canine girl's eyes widened and her furry ears went straight up. "I shouldn't ask, should I?"

"I'd rath'r y' didn't, Dor'thy." Betsy replied.

"You should punish the dog as well!" Roquat shot a gray finger over to Dorothy. "She is a _thief!_ She stole my belt!"

"Which was decorated with the stones of an artifact that was never yours." Quox revealed. "Or have you forgotten that those shards on your belt come from the ancient Whither-stone?"

"The _Whither-stone?_ " Ozga exclaimed. "I thought that was just a myth!"

"But…but…they were only _shards_." It was now clear that Roquat was attempting to rationalize his actions. "Not the entire stone! I certainly didn't cause the ground tremors which shook off those shards!"

"But you knew that by collecting enough of them, you could create something…like that belt of yours…which could grant a single wish upon a single day if you arranged the shards in a certain way." Quox countered. "As you have been unnecessarily selfish in your wishes, the Great Jinjin does not find enough justification in your plea to have the belt returned to you. I suspect that someone like Dorothy there…" He gestured to the canine girl. "…would be a little more responsible in her use of such an artifact?"

Her ears lowered a bit in her intimidation, but she took a deep breath before speaking. "Well…um…I think this belt should go to someone far better suited to using this responsibly. At the moment, she's under a spell back in Oz, and we're trying to break it, but we can't do that without the help of one of the nomes."

"And yet, you don't feel compelled to make a single wish which would quite easily break this spell?" Quox curiously asked. "Or the spell which has covered you in all that fur?"

Dorothy shook her head. "With all respect, I'd rather we stick to our plan."

Quox then turned his head back to Roquat. "And now, you know why I feel that this belt of yours is safer in the hands of one such as Dorothy Gale. Were she as selfish as you, Roquat, she would have immediately used your belt to change herself back to the human girl she once was."

The Nome King, who was now on his knees, looked up to Quox with as soulful a gaze as he could attempt. "Wh-what is to happen to me?"

"You are to be banished to the surface, Roquat." The dragon proclaimed. "You will never see the interiors of your own dominions ever again."

"But this is my _home!_ " the nome monarch yelled angrily. "I am the ruler of my people! There is no other nome who…"

"No other, you say?"

Kaliko, the king's steward, now stepped over to Roquat upon announcing his presence. Unlike the other nomes, he ignored the eggs that were surrounding the nome ruler, and the white orbs began to separate to give the steward an open path. "I feel compelled to dispute that claim, Roquat."

At this point, Inga re-emerged from the throne room to curiously observe the situation outside of it. King Kitticut followed behind him. Roquat caught sight of Inga…who remained a nome…in his peripheral vision, and glanced upon him.

The nome monarch's eyes then went back to Quox, gesturing to the nome his magic had created. "What of…"

"Don't even suggest it, Roquat." Quox warily interjected. "You _know_ that boy used to be someone else's child. The humanity you selfishly took from Inga will be restored."

The gray-skinned nome's head lowered slowly. His words were tinged with genuine regret. "I…I only wanted to know what it was like…to have what humans call a 'son'. I was never going to hurt him."

"Quox…" The dragon turned to the source of the young female voice, and saw the monkey girl looking up at him. "…um…if you're a magic dragon, can you get something out of me? I…kinda swallowed something. It's a magic stone."

The scaly beast frowned in confusion, and then brought the tip of one of his claws over to gently touch upon the simian girl's large tummy. Quox's eyes closed as the claw lingered upon Trot's furry gut. A moment later, his large eyes re-opened. "Ah, there it is. Hmmm…you've got the petrified eye of a gorgon in you! That doesn't belong there, does it?"

The claw harmlessly rubbed up towards Trot's head, and a wave of nausea seized the monkey. She began to cough and hack until a moist stone object popped out of her simian mouth, which she caught with her hands before it hit the ground. She immediately recognized it, through wide eyes, to be the very same stone she used to enchant Ozma and her entourage.

The dragon's claw then hovered over Inga, and then spun in a circle above the gray-skinned, white-haired nome. His thin legs began to expand as his round body seemed to straighten, forming a more human torso as his legs also resumed a more human appearance. The boy's hair reshaped itself to the full head of brown hair worn by the young prince of Pingaree. As Inga's mind had been mildly altered to the effect that he was made to think he was always a nome, he felt that fog recede as well as his eyes blinked rapidly. In the next moment, Ingot was completely gone, replaced by the young son of a highly-overjoyed King Kitticut.

When Inga looked around confusedly, he spotted his father, and instantly recognized him. "DAD!"

The prince hurried into the open arms of the relieved king, and both father and son embraced each other happily. "Ohhh, my boy…my dear, dear boy!"

Quox's restorative claw then hovered over an idling, confused dove as well, and upon circling the tip above the bird, the feathers covering the creature began receding as its body shape began mutating to that of an aged human man with shaggy gray hair. The dove's beak receded back to become a human nose and mouth, and a pair of human arms replaced the dove's wings just as a pair of human feet replaced the avian limbs below his waist.

Upon spotting the dragon, the Shaggy Man gasped aloud. "Dear me!"

Quox chuckled amusedly. "Don't worry…I'm not gonna eat you."

Although the Lion and Dorothy were happy to see all these conundrums being addressed by the Great Jinjin's dragon, there was one other matter which once again put an expression of concern on the leonine monarch's furry face as he turned his head to the anthropomorphic dog. "Dorothy…da Scarecrow!"

Dorothy's ears rose in recognition of this, and she gasped in her realization. The straw-stuffed advisor had failed his test, and he had to be somewhere in the Ornaments Chamber. Without saying a word, the canine girl hurried her way past everyone, remembering how she got to the chamber, ignoring anyone who called to her.

When she passed through the curtain this time, however, it did _not_ become a solid blank wall!

Once again, Dorothy began looking around the remaining ornaments, sniffing around instinctively. Sadly, she could pick up no scents other than that which all the ornaments shared. Selection had to be by sight. Her ears lowered regretfully upon acknowledging this.

She then noted a glow coming from behind her, and she turned curiously around, her ears raising up.

A blue ornament in the shape of a proud schoolmaster, holding a diploma, was emitting this soft blue glow.

Dorothy's tail began to wag as she brought her claw-tipped, padded finger up to point at it. "Ev."

But nothing happened, and Dorothy's ears lowered.

"That's not where your Scarecrow friend comes from, Dorothy!"

She recognized the voice of the dragon, but she did not see the giant beast behind her when she turned to face him. Instead, he saw a well-built old man frowning confusedly at Dorothy. Standing beside him was one of the male children of the Queen of Ev. "Don't you know where he comes from? Where he was _made?_ "

"Of course I do." She then turned back to the ornament, and once again pointed her finger at it. "Oz."

The ensuing flash of light turned the ornament into a thick blue mist, which grew in size, and dissipated in front of Dorothy to reveal the fully-restored Scarecrow.

The canine girl's tail wagged wildly and her ears stood straight up as she wrapped her furry arms around the straw-stuffed advisor, who still looked a little confused. "Scarecrow! You're back! You're _back!_ _RUFF! RUFF!_ "

When it finally hit him, the Scarecrow looked Dorothy in her still-human eyes. "Did I…did I _fail?_ "

"Oh, it doesn't matter now." Dorothy replied. "Don't worry about it!"

"But…but this is so _embarrassing!_ " The Scarecrow protested. "First, I confuse an Isoceles Triangle for a Right Triangle, and now _this!_ I may need to get a new brain, Dorothy!"

"Now, now…" Quox remarked, stepping over to them. "…even the best brains in the world can fail every so often. You just over-rationalized is all. It's a weakness common to having good brains!"

Dorothy smiled, gesturing to the old man. "Scarecrow…this is Quox. He's…"

" _QUOX?_ " The Scarecrow sounded very surprised as his eyes widened. "I know that name! He's an instrument of vengeance, sent by Tititi-Hoochoo, the Great Jinjin, to punish anyone who violates the laws of his fairyland!" He brought his hand up, still awestruck, to shake the smiling old man's hand. "I'd always read about you, sir…but I never thought I'd ever meet you! I guess this is the human form I read about that you use as your disguise!"

Quox chuckled. "Yup, that it is."

Dorothy felt a tug at her tail, and she looked down to see the little boy, Evrob, looking up at her. He held a glowing blue ornament in his little hand. "'Scuse me…I think this is yours too. Could you do the Oz thing again?"

The canine girl nodded, smiling. "Put it on the ground there."

Evrob complied, and once again, Dorothy raised a furry finger and invoked the name of the magical fairyland of which she was now a resident. Another flash of light turned the ornament into a thick blue mist, which formed in front of Dorothy and then dissipated to reveal the tin-plated form of Empress Nimmie Amee!

Confused at first, her eyes then fell on Dorothy, and then scanned the other live people in the room. "Hmmm…I guess I failed, didn't I?"

"Don't be too hard on yourself, your highness." The Scarecrow responded. "I've got the most excellent brains in the land of Oz, and I _still_ failed my test."

Evrob now pulled at Dorothy's furry arm. "Hey! Look! I see _another_ one glowing!"

The group followed Evrob and Dorothy until they found the glowing ornament. It was the very same man in white armor that had been selected once before when Nimmie had her turn.

The tin empress frowned at this. "That's funny…that was one of the ornaments I picked. Nothing happened."

Dorothy shrugged. "Well…it's glowing now." The canine girl brought up a clawed, furry finger. "Oz."

The flash happened once again, turning the white knight into a blue mist, which formed in front of Dorothy, and dissipated to reveal the tin-plated soldier called Fyter!

Nimmie's eyes widened. "So I should have said 'Oz', eh? Tri-cky, tri-ckyyyy…"

At first, the tin soldier looked confused in his restoration. Upon spotting Dorothy's canine form, however, he frowned in confusion.

"Dorothy?" Fyter tilted his head to the side. "Is that _you?_ "

The canine girl sighed. "Long story. I'm still me, though."

Fyter nodded, gently placing a tin-plated hand upon Dorothy's shoulder. "And that's the important thing." His eyes then turned to the tin-wrought female, and as his gaze lingered, he stepped over to her slowly.

Knowing who this was, Nimmie was understandably hesitant to speak. This was, after all, a man she once had affections towards during the reign of the Wicked Witch of the East. They had covertly arranged potential insurrections against the powerful old crone's rule, only to see them all effectively neutralized and put down before they had a chance to make a significant difference.

The silence between them was finally broken by Fyter. "I…heard about the wedding. And your coronation. I'm sorry I was not there."

Nimmie nodded. "Would you have approved?"

"I am a soldier with the gillikin armies." Fyter replied. "I don't think that's a question for me to answer, empress."

"Yes it is." Nimmie countered. "I'm asking for your opinion. Do you think I have the potential to be a good empress?"

Fyter shrugged. "I think you would agree that we both risked our lives to try and compel others to rise and resist the rule of the Wicked Witch of the East, Nimmie. That you had spoken out so passionately against her tyranny, on so many occasions, shows you certainly have the charisma to be a leader." He then placed his hands gently on Nimmie's own tin-plated shoulders. "I think the emperor made a good choice."

Nimmie smiled. "I was the one who made the choice, Fyter. He didn't want to force me into anything."

Fyter smiled back, nodding. "Yup, that sounds like our Nick." His expression then went serious again. "You know, I never did find out what happened to you. I mean…the last time I saw you, you were a beautiful munchkin."

"I'll tell you later, Fyter." Nimmie responded. "Right now, I have to think about my husband, and my friends. But I promise, I will tell you the whole story afterwards."

As Fyter and Nimmie spoke, Evrob had been going around the Ornaments Chamber, looking for any other glowing exhibits. Sadly, no other piece gave off any illumination, and he was sullen when he returned to Dorothy's side.

The canine girl bent to a furry knee in front of the boy in her concern. "What is it, Evrob?"

The little boy pouted, lowering his head. "I thought those other wizards would be here." He quietly murmured.

Dorothy frowned in her confusion. "Other wizards?"

King Rinkitink was the first to react to this mention. "Oh yes! You must mean Marie's friends!" He looked down to the hen that he still cradled in his arms. "You _do_ remember who she asked us to find, don't you?"

The hen nodded. "An' I r'memb'r those nomes talkin' 'bout those two gray gems in that Metal Forest."

"My, my, my my my." Kaliko stepped slowly towards King Rinkitink and the hen he held. "I always knew that some of us tend to be a bit loose-lipped, but _really._ I should impose new rules on idle chatter, shouldn't I?"

Quox arched an eyebrow. "Perhaps you would prefer to see Roquat back on the throne?"

Were it possible for a mere look to kill someone, Kaliko's expression in response to the disguised dragon's question would have quickly put Quox six feet under. After a moment, he spoke slowly and sternly in answer to the old man's notion. "Go get those stones…and then I will want you and all of your friends _out of my dominions,_ if you don't mind."

"Sorry y' can't get your 'silver guardian'." Betsy slyly quipped.

Kaliko smirked, turning back to 'Billina'. "You're better off in feathers anyway. Maybe Dorothy can set you up in a farm."

The old man that was Quox's disguise then bent down to Evrob with an expression of eagerness on his face. "Want me to help you find your magician friends?"

Little Evrob nodded, smiling. "Okay!"

Quox nodded back, smiling. "Follow me, then. Let's go!" As they began to move, the old man stopped near Kaliko. "By the way…I'll expect you to release all those other prisoners from Pingaree as well. Have them all gathered outside your throne room, okay? Be a good little usurper."

Kaliko sighed loudly and irritably. "Fiiiiine."

As Quox and Evrob hurried their way through to the Metal Forest, the rest of the group stepped out of the Ornaments Chamber to go back to the large room where the others were waiting.

Rinkitink just happened to be walking near a very grumpy-looking Kaliko. "Sly actions on your part, I must say." The round-bodied monarch mused aloud, smiling. "For a while, I thought you were lying when you suggested that those caverns would give us the means to help you supplant Roquat. But I suppose if we had gotten ourselves hopelessly lost in there, Roquat would have been quite pleased with you. Sounds like a win-win scenario for you, eh, Kaliko?"

Again, Kaliko smirked as he walked. He didn't even turn his head to Rinkitink as he dismissively replied. "Whatever you say."

The incumbent king gave instructions to a group of nomes to bring the shipwrecked prisoners from Pingaree to the large chamber. He then motioned for his other guests from Oz and Ev to join him in the throne room.

Once Kaliko settled himself into the throne seat with a sense of quiet satisfaction, his eyes first fell on the Scarecrow. "You should count yourselves lucky you have a friend in Quox, or I'd have you hand over that belt."

"You heard him yourself, Kaliko." The Scarecrow reminded. "He wanted it to go to Dorothy."

"And what makes you so sure _she_ is going to use it responsibly?" Kaliko mused.

"I won't." Dorothy calmly replied. "This belt is going to the Princess Ozma once we've set her free."

"Princess Ozm…oh yes." He reached over to grasp a very nicely-designed mug, signalling for a nome. "Lurline and Pastoria's halfbreed brat. What makes you think _she_ is going to use it responsibly, then?"

"She may not use it at all." Nimmie replied. "But I'm sure she'll keep a very close watch on it."

A nome servant stepped over with a pitcher of liquid, which he poured into the empty mug, filling it near the brim. Outside the throne room, many murmuring voices were heard from a crowd that was rapidly forming outside.

Bilbil clopped over to Rinkitink as the others idled. The goat's eyes were on the mug Kaliko held. He spoke in a hushed tone. "I wonder if that's the 'victory cup' those nomes mentioned?"

"I was thinkin' th' same thing." Betsy responded, in a similarly hushed manner.

The smiling Shaggy Man and the equally pleased old woman called Mira stepped over to where Dorothy, the Lion, Scraps, the Scarerow, Nimmie, and Fyter stood. "You have no idea how grateful we are that you have rescued us." The shaggy vagabond remarked. "I'm certain these people will be relieved to find themselves out of these subterranean surroundings, at the very least."

"As long as we don't have to walk past a big ol' splatter again." Nimmie glanced to the Lion, who shrugged sheepishly.

"Well, well, well!" Scraps practically hopped over to the Scarecrow. "Fancy seeing _you_ here, honey-bunch!" She cooed.

The straw-stuffed advisor smiled. "I imagine you were keeping everyone entertained while you were in captivity?"

Scraps nodded. "I even did that silly 'write-on-the-ground' thing that everyone started doing." She then pouted. "They didn't care for _my_ messages, though."

The old woman's eyes were on Dorothy as she stepped in closer to the canine girl. One of her aged hands rubbed against a portion of the girl's soft headfur, and Dorothy's tail began to wag approvingly. "Hello, dear. My name is Mira. We are so very indebted to you and your friends! Looking forward to getting back on the farm?"

Dorothy found herself enjoying the petting from the sweet old lady. "W..well…I don't actually work on a farm anymore. My Aunt and Uncle live on one in Oz, but..."

"Oh, but you do _visit_ them every so often, don't you?" Mira then asked, maintaining her highly satisfying petting rhythm as she spoke. "Perhaps…not as often as you should? Hmm?"

Indeed, this thought had been on Dorothy's mind on occasion before and after her weekly Sunday dinner visits. "Yes, I…I do visit them. Every Sunday, in fact."

"Oh, I think you should visit them much more often, if you ask me, dear." Mira noted, applying a bit of scratching behind Dorothy's furry right ear that felt very pleasant. "They _are_ family, after all…aren't they?"

"Mmmmm…" Dorothy found herself luxuriating in Mira's petting, closing her eyes as her tail wagged more rapidly.

The Scarecrow, glancing Dorothy's way, was about to say something when Quox returned with Evrob. Behind them were two robed men. One was well-built and had a head of shoulder-length brown hair and a well-groomed mustache and beard. The man next to him was not as athletic-looking, but he also had shoulder-length hair, and his mustache was thinner. He had a goatee rather than a full beard, and his eyes were larger compared to the other, taller man. Both men presented the appearance of being magicians.

The other nine children of the Royal Family of Ev, and their mother, rushed over to reunite with these two men, greeting them as they would a beloved family member. They smiled back and shared a few kind words with them as the other guests from Oz watched.

Evrob began dragging the shorter one over to Dorothy as Mira disengaged from her petting to stand by the Shaggy Man and observe. "Neville! Neville! These are the people that saved us! You've gotta meet them!" Evrob noted aloud. He indicated Dorothy first. "This is Dorothy. She's under a witch's curse. Can you help her?"

"Hey! Hey! Hang on! One thing at a time, pal!" The smiling Neville gently chided, rubbing Evrob's head. He then looked to Dorothy, his eyes scanning up and down her furry form. "Witch's curse, eh? I won't ask how ya got it." He then extended a hand. "Nice to meet ya, Dorothy. I'm Neville. Neville Evince from Chicago." He gestured to the other man with his other hand as the surprised canine girl shook the offered hand. "Tall and dashing over there is Corin Everhart. He's from Wales. There was a third, but…well, he's kind of in hiding around here…" Neville began to look around curiously before his eyes fell on Kaliko. "…oh, there he is!" A quick glance to Dorothy followed. "Excuse me, hon. I'll be right back…hey, CORIN!" Looking to his fellow magician, he pointed to the nome in the throne seat. "I _found_ him!"

Corin and Neville now stepped over to confront Kaliko as he took another sip of his drink. The others went quiet as they confronted the incumbent nome ruler.

"You've got something of ours, did ya know that?" Neville remarked.

"We certainly hope you're not entirely unwilling to part with it." The handsome magician called Corin added.

A tense moment of silence followed before Kaliko spoke. "Can I finish my drink first?"

Corin, who had his hands behind his back, tilted his head to the side. A tinkling noise could be heard behind him. "What drink?"

The usurping nome snorted in derision, and brought the mug to his lips once again. Kaliko then blinked as he noticed that the mug's remaining liquid was now completely gone, and not a drop of it remained.

With a loud and irritated sigh, Kaliko angrily tossed the mug towards the two magicians. Corin was easily able to catch it. Giving it a quick inspection, he then turned his head to Neville and gave a nod of confirmation.

An unpleasant expression remained on the new nome ruler's face as he leaned forward, his eyes on Quox. "Get Roquat in here."

The dragon, who was still in his human guise, turned his head towards the still-petrified former monarch who was still surrounded by many eggs, which remained upright as if they were alive. "Right! Bring him over!" He commanded unto this egg army.

The eggs began to move now, compelling Roquat himself to move to avoid even brushing against the surfaces of their outer shells for fear that he might be forever destroyed. Other nomes kept themselves at a distance from these eggs as they brought the former monarch of the nomes before their new ruler.

Kaliko smirked as his eyes went to Dorothy. "Fetch me my crown, doggie."

Dorothy's ears lowered angrily as she fixed a hateful gaze upon the usurper. "Fetch it _yourself._ " She growled.

It was Mira, however, who snatched the crown from the top of Roquat's head, and Kaliko turned his eyes to the old woman as she smirked up to him. The former steward looked surprisingly wary as Mira gazed upon him.

"Do behave yourself, steward."

Mira then tossed the crown towards Kaliko, who grabbed it with an odd and visible sense of relief, and then placed it upon his head.

Kaliko then addressed the entire assemblage. "Now unless there's anything else you want to take from me…" He then gestured towards the room's exit. "…get out of my dominions."

"Ah, not so fast." Quox remarked, stepping forward to confront Kaliko.

The former steward sighed loudly, hanging his head. " _Now_ what?" He snapped.

The dragon's human guise smirked. "You're holding on to someone _else_ that we need to take with us."

Kaliko frowned in confusion for a moment…

…and then his eyes widened. "Not that…disgusting-looking… _thing!_ "

Quox fixed a stern and unsettling gaze upon the former steward. "You _know_ who I mean. He hasn't committed any serious crimes, and I'd hate to have to tell the Great Jinjin that you're holding him against his will. Especially after what Roquat did to him."

Kaliko sighed in his frustration once again. "I thought I would never have to see that vile ruin of a face again." He muttered, and then signalled for a pair of nome warriors. "Go on, find the Butterfield man and bring him out here."

This statement immediately caught the attention of the Shaggy Man, whose eyes widened, seeing as how he, too, was from the little-known Kansas town of Butterfield.

One of the nome warriors looked hesitant. "Do we _have_ to?"

"NOW." Kaliko ordered.

A few minutes later, the sent warriors returned with a human man clad only in burlap rags between them. His smaller nome escorts made every effort to keep their eyes averted from his face as they moved.

Everyone else caught sight of this man's face, and some of them had to look away, as it was a wrinkled, horrid semblance of what may have once been human. It was now wrinkled, pock-marked, and boil-ridden. Remnants of his hair hung like lifeless strings from the top of his head, and he looked entirely malnourished. A very unpleasant stench hung around him as well, although only those who were very close to him could smell it.

He also had the tattered remnants of a tie around his neck which the Shaggy Man immediately recognized.

The old vagabond gasped aloud. "That…that's my _brother!_ " His eyes then went to Roquat, and they now flashed with fury. " _Monster!_ " He hatefully hissed.

The deposed nome merely snorted in derision. Kaliko, however, had a more amused look on his face now as he made an announcement to his guests. "Any fair maidens here brave enough to give our liberated friend here a kiss? Hmmm?"

Although all eyes brave enough to look upon the Shaggy Man's brother were hesitant to immediately respond, their eyes were not so much filled with revulsion as they were with pity for what had obviously been inflicted upon him. They wondered what he could have possibly done to deserve such a horrible countenance.

But only one among them all began stepping forward, despite her initial hesitation, to close the distance between her and the Shaggy Man's brother. The eyes of many…including those of Betsy, Dorothy, Scraps, the Lion, King Rinkitink, the Scarecrow, Nimmie, Fyter, Quox, and the Shaggy Man himself…followed her as she walked, and while one could not tell if a beak was capable of displaying a smile, she knew that if she were still human, she would be smiling along with the rest of them as she watched.

All were silent as the girl stopped in front of the man with the mystically-ruined face, and while the stench was indeed quite repulsive, she knew that it had been magically inflicted, and she was more than willing to defy this. Even if it meant becoming a repulsive hag herself as a consequence.

She knew that the gentleman from Butterfield was just as pleasant as his natural appearance had shown, and it was through his intervention that he had prevented her from a terrible fate at the hands of a cruel man. The Butterfield gentleman gave no thought to compensation, either, as he merely believed that it was the right thing to do.

Since that encounter, she had very much wanted to see him again.

And here he was.

A single tear of pity ran down her face as her eyes saw his own human eyes through the fleshy, ruined mass of his face. They remained very close to each other.

A tear then fell from one of the eyes of the Shaggy Man's brother, running down along the wrinkles and pockmarks of his unnatural, cursed face.

She spoke quietly, despite her shaking voice. "I don't care what you look like." She ran the tips of her fingers along his ruined face. "I _love you._ "

Dorothy held the Lion tightly as they both witnessed this moment. Both had tears streaming down their eyes. The Scarecrow, who also had a sympathetic expression, had a hand on the weeping canine girl's shoulder.

A whispery, strained voice could now be heard from the mouth of the Shaggy Man's brother as he stared into the unnatural, but beautiful and captivating eyes of the beautiful former fairy in front of him. "Oooozzz-gaaaaaa…."

The lips of the floral fairy girl met his own ruined mouth, and they lingered there lovingly. She wrapped her slender arms around his torso tightly, casting aside all concern that she herself would be cursed to share his unpleasant visage. He had saved her from the cruelty of the Royal Gardener. Now it was time to return the favor.

But the curse Roquat had inflicted upon the well-dressed Butterfield gentleman was brashly laid, as the former Nome King imagined that he had made this man so vile-looking and so disgusting that no fair maiden of any kind would ever want to be anywhere near him. This in punishment for a well-deserved comment laid down by the Butterfield man regarding how Roquat's penchant for cruelty was reflected in the old nome's unpleasant appearance.

Bright and beautiful sparkles of light showered around the Shaggy Man's brother as their kiss lingered, and eyes widened as the stringy head of hair became a more healthy shade of brown and became fuller in volume. The pockmarks on his face dissolved along with the wrinkles, as did the boils. A much more handsome face could now be seen as the hunched-over Butterfield man now stood upright, holding to Ozga with two much more healthy-looking arms.

And when the eyes of the Shaggy Man's restored brother looked upon Ozga with a more clear human gaze, she saw a pair of butterfly-like wings grow from the back of the beautiful fairy girl, who now looked much less floral, and all the more radiant for the fact that she had, indeed, reclaimed her full powers as a fairy!

Ozga's eyes widened as she noticed the restoration of her wings. "OHH!" She joyfully cried out as she once again gripped the Shaggy Man's brother in a tight, loving hug.

Kaliko, observing the scene, rolled his eyes in his boredom.

Roquat hopped around angrily where he stood, fuming and growling with quiet rage over the breaking of another of his prized indulgences.

Tears of joy streamed down human faces, while those who were not human just smiled upon the happy moment in their mutual relief.

Quox, turning back to Kaliko, grinned in his satisfaction. " _Now_ we're done here."

Kaliko also grinned, albeit in a sarcastic manner. "Good. _Get out._ "

Unlike their respective journeys into the dominions, the entire assemblage of visitors from Ev and Oz...who were summarily guarded by the "egg army" Quox had created as they moved…stepped out into the open air through the front entrance to the dominions. The iron guardian with the large mallet remained motionless as they safely went across the impact platform. Progress was only slowed by the very hesitant Lion, who started stepping over the impact point quite slowly and fearfully before Dorothy and Trot amusedly pulled him across.

Once they were a good distance from the bridge that led to the dominion entrance, Prince Evardo turned to address the large group. "I don't know about anyone else, but I could use a bit of food. Unless you are in a rush to get back to your own homes, you are all welcome to join us for a banquet in honor of our liberation."

"Dat sounds good ta me!" The Lion responded.

"Me too!" Trot added.

"Me three!" little Evrob eagerly remarked.

"I might add that with a little grub in our bellies…" Neville then turned to Dorothy. "…me and my three other friends might be able to see about gettin' rid of all that fur."

Corin nodded. "Agreed."

Dorothy's ears raised up high, and her tail wagged wildly. "Gee, that would be swell!"

The Queen of Ev now looked around in her sudden confusion. Evardo turned to her in concern. "What is it, mother?"

"Quox isn't here." The Queen replied. "Where did he go?"

As it was King Kitticut who witnessed Quox's departure, it fell to him to explain. "I saw him stepping away with Roquat. Didn't even stop to say goodbye."

"Well, he _is_ the Great Jinjin's instrument of vengeance, after all!" The Scarecrow noted. "Now that he's given Roquat his punishment, he's probably on his way back to the Hollow Tube to report to Tititi-Hoochoo."

"Heh! For an instrument of vengeance, he was a pretty nice guy!" Neville observed.

"He sure was." 'Billina' added.

"Agreed." Corin noted.

"I'll miss Quox." Evrob remarked.

"So will I." Dorothy added.

"It was an honor to meet him." The Scarecrow noted.

"And I say, upon our first drink, that we propose a toast in his good name." Corin suggested.

All voices, on smiling faces, loudly spoke as one. "AGREED!"

* * *

"I don't understand!" Jellia frowned, as the motes of fairy magic faded around the ice-encased posture of a shocked Oscar Diggs. "You're a fairy capable of powerful feats of magic, and you can't thaw out the Wizard of Oz?"

Polychrome sighed regretfully as her gaze lingered on the icy prison. "Fairy magic and the power of witchcraft are two separate things in Oz, Jellia. It was one of the reasons why the fairies of Burzee never intervened when the witch-sisters conquered Munchkinland and the Winkie Country. We can overcome most low-power enchantments with our magic, but this is potent and very dark sorcery that has encased Mr. Diggs. This is far beyond our ability to dissolve. I fear even Queen Lulea could not even melt the ice that covers the Wizard."

A far more dreadful thought occurred to her. "Y-you don't…think…he might _die_ from all that ice, do you?"

"Oh, no. That much, I am sure of." Polychrome assured. "I can still feel life within him, and he's in no danger while he's in there, but…" she turned to Oscar with a lamenting expression. "…he's afraid. He's _very_ afraid."

"So…how _are_ we going to free him?" Jellia asked.

"We can't, obviously." Polychrome regretfully noted. "But there are two who can, and it was these two coven-sisters who established the tenuous stalemate that lingered until Dorothy Gale's unexpected arrival."

Jellia's eyes went wide in her surprise. " _Both_ of them? I should think Glinda's magic would be capable of…"

The colorful fairy shook her head, silencing the head maid. "Both of them. Glinda, _and_ Locasta."

* * *

Loud, raucous jubilance reigned all over the city of Evna as Prince Evardo XV led the entourage from Oz, the Royal Family of Ev, and the people from Pingaree…as well as King Rinkitink and Bilbil…through the city's cobblestone streets. Betsy had read about the kind of architecture and fashions that were popular during England's Victorian period, and she saw a lot of this through her hen's eyes as the entourage moved towards Evna's Royal Palace.

The main group needed to wait, however, for the food to be prepared, and for the Royal Family to get cleaned up and changed. In that time, however, there was one last matter that the two wizards of Ev…who were reunited here with Marie Evangeline…needed to address.

Corin seemed to make a show of it as everyone watched, and he held the "victory cup" aloft as he spoke. "Now you all might be wondering why we specifically asked that stuffy nome for this particular mug. Although I will admit, he looks quite nice this way, and I'm tempted to…"

"Oh, just _restore_ the man!" Marie demanded, after rolling her eyes in disbelief.

"Yeah! You've got more than enough flagons in your collection as it is!" Neville amusingly added, provoking a few hearty laughs from the observers.

Corin smirked, his hands on his waist as he looked to Neville. "Then you know what _we_ need to do, don't you?"

Marie and Neville now stepped over to Corin as the young wizard from Wales held up the nice-looking mug, the bottom of which rested upon the palm of Corin's right hand. Marie placed her palm on the opposite side of Corin's hand, and Neville held his hand beneath Marie's.

The words they chanted aloud next were spoken in loud unison…

 _I bid, set him free, set him free, set him free!_

 _By will and wizardry, three times THREE!_

Upon invoking the word 'three', they shoved the mug up, and it began to tumble and spin in the space above them as the three wizards lowered their arms. The mug spun around like a centrifuge, growing larger until the mug seemed to warp and twist to the shape of a man tucked into a fetal ball. The spinning motion slowed until gravity took over and a bald and fairly well-built old man wearing a set of fine brown robes was able to settle to the floor on his feet. He didn't look at all dizzy as he assumed a defensive stance, looking warily around him.

"RIGHT!" The bald man barked out, in a bold and commanding voice as his eyes found Neville. "Give me a situation report!"

Neville smiled. "Would ya believe it if I told you all is well?"

The freed wizard frowned in his initial confusion. He looked around until his eyes found Marie, who confirmed Neville's words with a nod and a smile. "So…the Royal Family…?"

"Liberated." Marie answered. "They're getting ready for a banquet in honor of our new friends."

"New friends?" The old man now looked to the others in the entourage curiously, most of whom smiled back to him.

"They come from the lands of Oz, and Pingaree." Corin noted. He then flourished unto the curious man who had once been a 'victory cup'. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Everitas, the wise and most benevolent leader of our mystical quartet."

Everitas nodded slowly as he scanned the smiling, curious, and otherwise pleasant expressions looking at him. "And…how did you all come to meet my three friends here?"

"Actually, it was Marie there who met us." King Rinkitink responded, still holding the hen that used to be Betsy. "She aided us when we fled the charge of those wheeler creatures. We were looking for the stranded shipmates of our flying dirigible."

Marie nodded in confirmation. "They told me they'd try to find you…but, there was a little girl with them. And a nome, as well."

Inga raised his hand. "That nome was me. Roquat turned me into one. A dragon named Quox changed me back."

"And Betsy…" The hen in Rinkitink's arms looked warily up to the round-bodied monarch as he spoke, noting his hesitation in coming up with an excuse. "…well, she…"

Everitas, however, raised his hand. A gentle smile was on his face. "Say no more, my friend. What matters is that she is here, safe and sound. Even if she is temporarily not herself." The bald spellcaster glanced down at the hen, holding his gentle, and apparently knowing, smile. The hen looked back up to Everitas curiously.

He then looked down to the goat next to him. "And neither are you, I would imagine."

The goat's response was in a less than cordial tone. "That's none of your business."

"Even though I could quite easily have you restored?" Everitas then offered.

All eyes were on these two now. Particularly those of King Rinkitink.

"Don't bother." Bilbil grumpily responded. "Fix Betsy instead."

Everitas spoke more discreetly now, and everyone other than Bilbil heard him muttering incomprehensibly. "I'm afraid her form is being held by the potent, and thankfully temporary, magic of a dragon. We would have to arrange a ritual to break it early, and that's time-consuming." The bald man then turned to the rest of the group while staying next to Bilbil. "What we have here is the victim of an evil wizard's magic."

" _Everitas!_ " Bilbil loudly hissed. "Don't say anything more! I _will hit you!_ "

"But the man who put you in that form is _gone,_ good Prince!" Everitas reasoned. "Don't you think the people of your country deserve to have their ruler back?"

Everyone else was quite astonished at this. Save for King Rinkitink, who remained silent, but was otherwise relieved that his four-legged friend's lingering problem was finally being brought out into the open.

Bilbil sighed, apparently resigned to his fate. "They can do without me."

" _Rubbish._ " Corin remarked. "Let Everitas put you on two feet again, Prince Bobo."

" _NO!_ " Bilbil barked angrily. "I…I've been this way for…for too much time. I might as well stay this…this way, yes."

Everitas did not look convinced. From Bilbil's tone, it seemed like he was making excuses. "If you're worried that it's going to hurt…"

"Fix…fix _Dorothy_ instead." Bilbil reasoned. "Leave me alone!"

The canine girl, however, was not about to let the goat off the hook. "Actually…I, uh…I have very important business with the Legion of Courage. The Lion…my king…needs me to stay like this for a little while longer."

The leonine monarch now looked confused. "I do?"

"That's right!" The Scarecrow added. "After all…until the Tiger has been freed, she still is the Lion's majordomo!"

Dorothy gave the Lion a discreet, but hard, nudge. "But I…OW! I…I mean, OH! Yeah! Right! Hey, sorry, Bilbilly ol' boy…I gots ta keep Dorothy a doggie fa now."

"Please, Prince Bobo." The Shaggy Man now stepped towards the troubled goat. "Whatever regrets you might have that is compelling you to hold to this fate, you should let it go."

"I agree." King Rinkitink firmly added.

"As do I." Fyter remarked, his own tone resolute.

"Me too." Empress Nimmie added.

"I wanna see what you used to look like!" Trot whined.

"So do I." 'Billina' added.

The Shaggy Man's brother stepped over next to the old vagabond. "If the one who made you this way is gone, I don't see any reason why you need to remain a goat."

"Unless you might want to…maybe… _tell_ us why?" Ozga then asked, moving to stand at the side of the Butterfield gentleman she loved.

Bilbil let out a long, lamented sigh as his furry posterior lowered to the ground. "I…I wasn't a very good prince. I…guess you could say that I cared too much. I kept stepping in on the affairs of my people. Anything that I thought was a problem, I wanted to address. I was…stubborn about it. I thought I could trust my advisor to keep secrets, but…well, I had no idea that he was a sneaky magician with a desire to rule Boboland. I could have been more cautious. Next thing I knew, I woke up with a pair of horns one morning, and then my hands looked weird. He even got everyone thinking that I had something against the privacy of other people. Like it was some kind of crime. When he finished his work on me…well, I certainly couldn't let my people be ruled by a four-legged goat, could I? A beast?" Bilbil lowered his head. "Like I said…they're better off without me. And _that_ is why I'd rather stay this way."

Neville stepped over to Everitas. "And that's why the people of Boboland appealed to us to help them deal with that guy."

The bald man nodded. "Indeed. It all fits." He turned his attention back to the goat below him. "We know this wizard is gone, your highness, because _we_ were the ones who drove him away."

"And once he was gone, he never returned." Marie added.

Corin now stepped over to Bilbil. "There's something else you should know, too. All that spite over your want to help others was the result of that wizard's magic as well. His spells were subtle, but effectively made your people a bit less inclined to trust you. We cleansed these enchantments before we left Boboland, but the only question we couldn't answer was whether or not their prince would return to them."

The room was very quiet as the goat thought on these words for a long moment. He then turned his head to the Lion with a curious expression on his furry face. "Legion of Courage?"

The Lion shook his head. "Sorry, kid. We don't take no cursed princes."

After another long moment of thought, Bilbil finally angled his head up to Everitas.

"Do it." He quietly remarked, his head lowered.

Hopeful whispers could be heard as Everitas…the most powerful wizard of the quartet that protected the land of Ev…began summoning forth magical energies as if he were a music conductor, and began directing them down upon the goat in front of him.

Bilbil had his eyes closed the entire time as he felt the volumes of hair covering his body begin to recede. The perpetual numbness in his hands and feet began to fade, and as he began to painlessly rise from four legs to two human-shaped ones. After such a long period of time locked in his four-legged form, he was finally able to wiggle fingers and toes as his torso went from that of a goat to one of a healthy, broad-chested human. His curled horns also receded into his head as he rose up to two feet, his face diminishing in its length until a handsome human face replaced the nose and the muzzle of the goat he once was. The human form that was taking shape was surprisingly well-built as a head of wavy, shoulder-length brown hair replaced the dull whiteness of the goat's fur on his head. All that remained was a bit of goat-hair stubble on the otherwise restored Prince Bobo's chin, but that soon faded as well.

Bobo brought his human hands up, making sure that the goat was completely gone. Marie had even chained an enchantment during the restoration process to insure that the Prince would not be naked when his humanity took shape, and he wore a white poet shirt, black breeches, and knee-length socks by the time his restoration was done.

The smiling Shaggy Man and his brother bowed respectfully. Everyone else, including the four wizards of Ev, followed suit.

Bobo could not help but smile at this gesture. It was perhaps the first time he had smiled since before he had been cursed. "You don't have to do that…but thank you. All of you."

"Mercy me!" Dorothy padded over to Bobo. "You look _really_ handsome, your majesty!"

"You know what the best part about this is, Dorothy?"

The canine girl tilted her head to the side curiously.

Bobo then gestured to King Rinkitink. "I don't have to have him on my back anymore whenever he needs to get around."

This produced a round of laughs from everyone present, and it was at this point that the Royal Family of Ev finally stepped out to rejoin their new friends. King Rinkitink was quick to explain the situation regarding Prince Bobo's restoration, and Evardo and his mother…and the rest of the Queen's children…saw no reason to not regard Prince Bobo as another new friend.

But it was young Evanna who asked the more important question. "So are you gonna go back to being a prince in your land?"

Again, Bobo thought on this. He then nodded. "Yes, little Evanna. I believe I will give my people another chance."

"Promise?" Evanna asked, keeping her eyes on Bobo's.

The restored prince smiled, and then planted a kiss on the cute blond girl's forehead. "I promise."

"I'm sure they'll be more willing to accept your selfless nature now, your highness." Corin remarked, gently placing a hand on the restored nobleman's shoulder.

"Well! I'm told the food is prepared and ready for us." Evardo announced. He then gestured towards where the banquet area was being set up. "Shall we, then?"

Once everyone was settled in and the food had been passed around, the revelries lasted well into the evening. Many a story was shared, and the mood remained quite lively. Bobo was particularly relieved to be having something other than carrots as a meal for once, and a lot of the conversation had been directed at him for the kind of society he had established while he was the ruler of Boboland. King Rinkitink was instrumental in helping Bobo remember some of the details.

The Lion's voice, close to her ear and spoken discreetly, intervened on her silent and contented observation of the banquet proceedings. "Got a few minutes, doggie?"

Dorothy nodded, and the furry girl rose up, politely excusing herself so she could follow the king of the Quadling Forest beasts until they were outside of the royal palace. The clear, moonlit skies were full of stars as they slowed to a halt beyond the palace's front entrance.

"Well! Dat was all one hell of a ride dere, eh, Dorothy?" The lion remarked as he turned to the canine girl.

"It's not really over yet, though." Dorothy replied. "We still have to set Ozma and the others free. Your Legion is still waiting for us at Jinxland."

"I already told dose wizards in dere about all dat durin' our meal." The lion revealed. "Dat Everitas guy an' his buddies are gonna come down wit us ta Jinxland an' break dat stone spell on ev'ryone."

Dorothy's eyes widened, and her ears went straight up. Her tail also wagged happily. "They will? Oh, that's fantastic news!"

The Lion's head tilted, however, as he observed Dorothy's reaction. "Wow…seems like dat's becomin' second nature to ya."

Dorothy frowned confusedly. "Huh?"

"Da way you're reactin' ta dat news." The Lion explained. "Look at ya. Tail waggin', ears standin' up high. Jus' like Toto."

"Oh. I…I never really thought about that." Dorothy lowered her furry head a bit. "I guess I-I'm not conscious of it."

The anthropomorphic Lion gently placed a padded paw on the canine girl's shoulder. "Ya don't sound very worried about it, ya know."

Raising her head back up, Dorothy shrugged, smiling as she turned to face the lion. "I guess I…I don't feel too bad about being a dog. I've always liked them, after all."

The smiling lion also shrugged. "Dey are man's best friend."

"Yeah, but I can't stay this way. I know Glinda wouldn't like it, for one thing." Dorothy reasoned. "And it was bad enough putting Aunt Em and Uncle Henry through _two years_ of me being a munchkin."

"Ye'd prob'ly drive Toto crazy, too." The lion observed. He then turned to look upon the surroundings in front of them both. "But ya know? Tonight jus' feels like a good night fer a nice, big roam. An' if dere's one ting Ev has a lot of, it's a lotta open ground."

The smile returned to Dorothy's furry face. "Are you suggesting that we kill a few hours roaming around outside Evna, my king?"

The lion shrugged again, feeling a bit bashful. "Tink of it as a late night guard shift."

The canine girl stepped in close to the lion. "Sounds good to me, your majesty."

"I can tell!" The lion mused. "Yer tail's waggin', an' yer ears are standin' up again."

Dorothy felt a wellspring of raw energy build within her. "I'm really starting to feel _eager_ for it, too! _Ruff! Ruff!_ "

The lion chuckled, rubbing at Dorothy's headfur with a paw. "Sounds like instinct ta me, puppy."

They both lowered to all fours, taking a deep breath before launching themselves unto the open grasslands of Ev, padding forward fast and feeling the light winds of the evening sky stream against their furry pelts. They remained alongside each other as they roamed, the canine girl always conscious in matching her pace with that of the leonine monarch. They chose to maneuver close to and around Evna as they moved at a brisk and liberating pace, and they occasionally leapt over a few obstacles along the way.

Dorothy couldn't help but feel _wonderful_ in her canine stride. She couldn't help but to be reminded of the other magical and wondrous evening she spent dancing around with the Scarecrow as a patchwork girl before her natural humanity was restored by Glinda.

Like that moment, she had no doubt that this roaming, too, would become a long-lasting memory.

* * *

Ever the soldier with a strong sense of duty, Fyter chose to keep a silent vigil over the royal palace during the night. Occasionally, he would hear Dorothy barking happily in the distance as she and the Lion continued their liberating roam around the city. Nimmie had chosen to stand guard over the door leading to the bedrooms of the royal family, which were conveniently lined up against each other, with the rooms of the King and Queen at the far end, and as such being the largest and the most lavish of these rooms.

As the tin-plated soldier continued his vigil, however, a small, furry creature loped out through the entrance door. Moving to get a closer look at this particular beast, he saw that it was the fat monkey Trot had been turned into.

As the people of Ev had oiled his joints upon the group's return from the dominions, no squeaking could be heard as Fyter moved close to the simian girl, who moved to a step of the staircase outside of the entrance and settled her furry butt upon it.

She then let out a long sigh.

Fyter lowered to a knee next to Trot. "Something on your mind tonight, slugger?"

Trot gasped a bit in her surprise upon seeing the tin soldier next to her, but she settled quickly. "Oh…hi, Fyter. I, uh…I can't sleep."

"Really? I should think you would be having magnificent dreams of beating away a few more handfuls of nomes tonight!" Fyter mused.

Trot smiled a bit at this, but her more serious expression quickly replaced it. "That's not why I'm here, though. Gosh…it's been so long since I was back home in California. My mom must be worried sick!"

"So you're lost? Like Dorothy was, when she first arrived in Oz?" Fyter surmised aloud. "What brought you here?"

"It was a whirlpool, but…I was trying to find someone when it happened." Trot answered. "All I knew was that he was lost at sea."

"Hmmm. You think he might be here?" Fyter thoughtfully asked.

Trot's head drooped back down. "I don't know. One minute, I'm sucked down into a big ol' whirlpool. Then, when I wake up, I'm in Oz, and an old lady is telling me she knows someone who can help me find my friend. That's…kinda how this whole mess started."

"I'd say you earned the right, then, to find your friend, now that the dangers seem to be behind us now." Fyter responded. "The ruler of the land has a magic picture, after all, and they say if you speak the name of the one who you're trying to find, the picture will show you exactly where that person is."

Trot sighed in the regret of her next thought. "I was the reason this whole mess happened, though. I was told that Glinda and her friends were evil. I thought I was doing a _good_ thing by turning them to stone."

Fyter gently placed a tin-plated hand on Trot's furry shoulder. "You were obviously deceived. And from what I hear, you made up for it by helping Dorothy and her friends defeat the very witches who lied to you. There's a word for that, in fact. It's called 'penance'. You make up for a wrong by doing something to fix the damage you had caused for whatever reason. Or you do something significant which may not be related to the damage, but which shows that you genuinely want to make amends."

Trot's expression remained sullen.

"And you don't feel you've done your penance?" Fyter then asked.

The monkey girl sighed. "I don't know. Maybe I'm better off this way. Being a monkey. I like being with Koup anyway."

Fyter frowned curiously. "Sorry…Koup?"

"He's a winged baboon I met in Jinxland." Trot explained. "He's a member of the Legion of Courage. He taught me things I could do as a monkey, like swinging on branches and climbing trees and stuff."

Fyter nodded, smiling. "But he's not the one you're trying to find, is he? Koup is not the reason you came here?"

"I know, but…honestly, I don't know if he's even _here._ " Trot lamented. "I could be doing all this for _nothing._ And if I had to go back home somehow and face my mother about how long I've been away? She'd kill me for worrying her like that. That's why I figure I'm better off just staying as a monkey."

Fyter nodded once again, and after a moment of thought, he made a proposal. "How about we just see if we can bring back Ozma tomorrow, and if we can't? I'll take you to the Magic Picture myself and we'll both see where your friend went. What's your friend's name?"

"Cap'n Bill." Trot replied. "Cap'n Bill Weedles. He's an old man with a wooden leg. My dad was part of the crew of his ship when Bill was a sailor."

Fyter re-positioned himself in front of the monkey, both of his tin-plated hands on her shoulders as he knelt before her. He looked right into her eyes as he spoke.

"We'll find him." the tin soldier quietly proclaimed. "I _promise_ you. We will find him."

* * *

Marie Evangeline had offered to take the hen that Betsy Bobbin had been turned into to a place where she could get some appropriate rest. The nest she had conjured with her magic looked quite inviting to the fowl who acknowledged herself as Billina.

It was more for the assurance that Marie wanted to give to the former Oklahoma girl that the wizardess chose to do this, and after she settled the hen upon the nest, she flashed a reassuring smile to her. "I wanted to let you know that your friends from Pingaree reminded us that you had a mule with you. Neville did a bit of scrying, and he was able to magically relocate Hank to one of the city's empty stables."

The hen's eyes widened. "He can't see me like this!" She whispered, a bit distraught by this news.

"Don't worry. He's been assured that you're just fine. Neville didn't say anything at all about what happened to you." Marie responded. "He said you'd come to him when you were ready to go back to Oz."

This sounded quite acceptable to Betsy. "Okay." Her feathers settled to a more relaxed position now. "Thank you, Marie."

The blond, smiling wizardess gently placed a hand on the hen's body as she spoke. "Get yourself plenty of sleep now…Billina." She winked amusedly.

"G'night, Marie." Betsy quietly replied. "Again, thank you."

* * *

As all was finally well in Oz, and everything had been set right, Dorothy Gale chose to return to her home within the fairyland where she knew she would be happy.

As their missing monarch had come back to the sounds of cheers and exultations from all directions, the brave heroine from Kansas would similarly receive such cries of joy, as she was terribly missed as well.

She felt good, too. It seemed so natural this way, as the royal entourage of which she was a part settled back into the throne room, where the rightful ruler would stand ready to receive visitors once again after an absence that lasted far too long.

Dorothy looked forward to a far more interesting future, too, as she glanced over to her partner, who still looked relieved that he was no longer nothing more than a stone statue.

She took a deep breath, breathing in the natural scents around her, and feeling the comfortable breeze cascading around her, and through her volumes of clean, thick fur, as she continued to follow her brave monarch to where he usually sat within the Quadling Forest.

Dorothy was happy that not only Ozma, but Glinda as well, found understanding in the former Kansas girl's decision. Her ordained work as one of the Lion's two majordomos…the other being the restored Hungry Tiger, of course…in the Legion of Courage was far too important for her to go back to being a hairless human girl.

Besides…she liked dogs, after all.

And as she settled into her new place at the Lion's side, sitting in a comfortably canine fashion, it was clear now that she loved being one even more.

* * *

Dorothy's eyes opened here, as the morning sun shined upon her furry face.

The dream felt so vividly, startlingly real. She even remembered the scents she had whiffed while she was within the dream's semblance of the Quadling Forest.

Glancing over to where she knew the Lion was sleeping, she saw that the leonine commander-in-chief of the Legion of Courage was still fast asleep, perhaps lost in a pleasant dream of his own.

Dorothy couldn't help but be thoughtful as her gaze lingered upon the Lion.

Such was the exhilaration of their roaming of the previous evening that she and the Lion chose to sleep outside of the city of Evna while remaining within close sight of the city's entrance area. As much as the Lion was used to slumbering out in the open air, this was Dorothy's first time sleeping in more natural surroundings. As she was covered with fur, it was as if she had a blanket keeping her warm against the evening's cool breezes.

Perhaps that's why she had such a vivid dream, she thought.

Or was it something more? The canine girl pondered this as she repositioned herself to a canine sitting posture, gazing down at the still-sleeping lion.

Although there were still moments where the leonine monarch needed to work on his capacity for courage, he had come a long way from the irony of a great beast who was even afraid of his own shadow. As much as his other two friends had their own touches of irony…the Scarecrow who wanted a brain without realizing how smart he already was, and the tin-plated Woodsman who felt that he lacked a heart while being ceaselessly compassionate…the Lion was among a species known to the people of the real world, and so she could relate to this particular beast a little more than two acquaintances that could never exist in places like Kansas and Oklahoma. There were no walking, talking scarecrows, nor were there men and women who were literally made of tin.

But as she herself had observed once to all three of them, they were the best friends anybody ever had, and she cared for all three of them equally.

Fate, however, seemed to be testing the former Kansas girl. Her time spent as a patchwork girl had obviously affected the Scarecrow in a fairly significant manner, and now it seemed that another wicked witch had now put her in a position where she couldn't help but wonder how an inescapable curiosity in continuing to serve as an anthropomorphic member of the Legion of Courage would affect the Lion she had been respectfully referring to as "her king".

On those occasions, she figured that by calling him such, it would remind him that he was indeed a monarch. He was royalty. Knowing this could effectively diminish any notion of his past cowardice, even if in some cases…such as the iron guardian situation…he would forget himself, and quiver in fear.

And on those occasions in which the Lion did display a confident sense of courage, Dorothy did, indeed, feel attracted to the king of the quadling beasts. A dog, after all, may be man's best friend, but a lion was the undisputed lord of all that would call themselves beasts. His highly intimidating bellows of ferocity…as well as his training in the ways of animal instinct…clearly evidenced this.

And she was very proud of how far her furry friend had come since she smacked his nose in self-defense upon their first meeting. Particularly for the fact that his own reward from the Wizard of Oz would inspire him to create a caste of proud and vigilant protectors.

She also found the prospect of actually being an active member of the Legion of Courage appealing.

Her thoughts compelled her to softly set them to familiar lyrics as she began to run her padded hand over the sleeping Lion's fur…

 _Though those witches want me crying, I'm with a mighty lion._

 _It's not so tough a slog._

 _Through the woods, I'll be running…_

 _…for my king, I'll be cunning…_

 _…if I must remain a dog._

Dorothy sighed out thoughtfully as she continued petting the Lion, who was resting on his right side, facing away from the canine girl.

Moments later, one of the Lion's paws gently wrapped around the wrist of Dorothy's own furry limb, and the leonine monarch rolled onto his back, looking up at his smiling, anthropomorphic friend.

The lion smiled back. "What'cha tinkin' 'bout, kiddo?"

Dorothy shook her head. "Nothing." She then placed the Lion's paw back on his chest. "Just…keeping a vigil on my king."

The lion nodded. "An' ta-night, you'll be back in a _real_ bed. Safe, sound, an' furless."

The canine girl nodded slowly, lowering her head a little.

The Lion, however, lifted it back up with a paw. "Come on, doggie. What'cha tinkin' 'bout?"

Dorothy slowly placed her padded hands upon the Lion's shoulders as she spoke. "Instinct, I guess. I mean…I'm still a dog, and…and you're the…the mighty king of the beasts." She struggled for a way to voice her thoughts as she spoke. "D-do you…think I did good as a member of your Legion?"

The Lion's eyes widened in his disbelief. "Are you _kiddin'?_ Dorothy, if I could give ya anytin' higher den a solid A plus, I would! Flyin' colors, even! Ya know…most people dat get turned inta aminals, dere always goin' all crazy an' silly, an' goin' on an' on about wantin' ta be back ta normal! But _you?_ Kid, ya handlin' dis like a real champ! Yer not just a 'good memba of my Legion'…yer a _beacon!_ A big ol', shinin' beacon! A real example fer all de uddas ta follow. In fact, I…well, I…"

The Lion had to stop himself, which only served to heighten Dorothy's curiosity. "What? Oh please, your highness…go on!"

But the leonine monarch shook his head. "Naaaw, naw. It's ludi-ca-rous. Real silly! Fah-get it."

Dorothy shook the lion now in her desperation. "No, please, _please,_ lion! Tell me! I don't care how silly or how crazy it is. I wanna _hear_ it!"

The lion then sighed aloud, lowering his own head. "Straw-head would kill me fah sayin' dis, but…" He then raised his furry head back up. "…well, yer…kinda, y' know…not bad as a…as…you know…"

"A dog?"

The lion hung his head low now. "Bet ya wanna smack me real good in da beak fer even _tinkin'_ dat, don'cha?"

But Dorothy now lifted his chin back up, smiling. "I'm not offended at all, my king. If it was impossible for me to be changed back, I'd be very happy to serve under you. After everything you and I have been through, I know now that you're a really good leader, and I wouldn't be surprised if you had a lot of supporters back in the Quadling Forest, where you reign supreme as the king of the beasts. If I ever found myself in your forest, no matter _what_ I am, you would always be my king, and I'd always be your loyal servant, and your greatest supporter."

The lion smiled now. "Ya really mean dat?"

"Absolutely." Dorothy assured. "I've _always_ felt that way since I found out they made you their king." She sounded a little bashful as the canine girl spoke her next words, and her own furry head lowered a bit. "I guess I just…feel a little more strongly about that here, being what I am now."

The lion rubbed his paw against Dorothy's furry, smiling face as she continued to look up at him. "I tink I know what'cha sayin'. An' dat don't make ya any less of a friend, Dorothy. Or any less of a big dog in da Legion a' Courage, fer dat mattah."

They then embraced each other in a long, warm hug. The canine girl's tail wagged happily as they held each other, and smiles were on both of their faces.

The lion broke the hug, but kept a paw on Dorothy's shoulder as he spoke. "C'mon, doggie. Let's go in an' see about gettin' some food."

The canine girl curtsied obediently. "As you wish…my king."

She then followed behind the ruler of the quadling beasts as they went back into the nearby city of Evna.

* * *

The decision was made to wait until the moment in which Betsy Bobbin's human form would be restored before the people of Pingaree said their goodbyes, and in that time, it was the Scarecrow and Fyter who explained their respective situations to Evardo.

Betsy herself, still held to her hen's form for a few more hours, was also able to share the situation involving the Princess Langwidere…and her collection of heads…to Evardo and his mother. Entirely outweighed by the extent of the efforts Betsy and her friends had performed in freeing the Royal Family of Ev from their captivity, it was impossible for Langwidere to formally place the visitors…whom she had branded as fugitives following their departure…under arrest upon their return.

Although he had promised to address the situation involving Langwidere, Evardo found the situation in Jinxland worth the notion of offering the services of the full quartet of wizards to aid in breaking the spells and fixing the situation in that troubled Quadling Country province, and the entourage from Oz was quite grateful for this. They figured it would be a most pleasant, and overwhelming, surprise for Oscar Diggs upon their return to the Emerald City.

In the last few minutes before the restoration of Betsy Bobbin, the people of Pingaree gathered in the royal palace's large, spacious and beautiful courtyard along with Prince Bobo and King Rinkitink, the latter of which had carried the hen out to where she would finally be able to shed herself of her feathers.

And in a whirl of glowing magic that spun her hen's shape around, her two fowl's legs expanded, and the feathers on her body seemed to pop off of her skin as her plump body grew taller and thinner. The hen's ridge on her head began to recede as volumes of soft, curly hair began to fill the top of her head, and her beak slowly receded inward, softening until it was a human nose and mouth. Dislodged feathers seemed to rain down below her as she continued to painlessly change. In the next moment, Betsy Bobbin…who was once again dressed in the outfit she wore when Quox transformed her…stood within the circle of feathers that were once her own.

She heaved a sigh of relief, smiling as the relieved Oklahoma girl looked to her many amazed friends from Pingaree. The curious children of the Royal Family were there as well, and they had been told the truth of the situation. Evring, in particular, still looked a little sad to see that his savior…the "invisible hen"…was now gone.

But he was at least happy to see that this was the human girl behind that guise.

King Kitticut, Queen Garee, King Rinkitink, Prince Bobo, and Prince Inga were all reluctant to part with the brave Oklahoma girl after all they had been through. Despite the many perils along the way, it was indeed an amazing adventure, and they were all the most relieved to have actually survived it.

Betsy went to each and every one of them to offer a hug and a personal farewell. She was particularly grateful to Salvo and Coral for helping her navigate and fight aboard the Regos Warboat that brought them to the Nome Dominions.

"You're a very brave and resourceful girl, Betsy Bobbin." Bobo remarked when she stepped in front of him. "Should you ever wish to visit my land, you will be given a warm welcome."

"Indeed! The same goes for my own lands as well." The round-bodied man called Rinkitink added. "You should find our capital city of Gilgad particularly entertaining!"

"Why?" Bobo mused. "Because they all laugh at your jokes, no matter how bad they may be?"

Rinkitink rolled his eyes. "That's Prince Bobo for you. Always butting into things! Are you sure your restoration is complete? Might there be a little of the ol' 'goat' left?"

Bobo smirked as Betsy and everyone else laughed at this exchange. The restored Oklahoma girl now stepped in front of young Inga, who opened his arms to receive Betsy's tight hug.

"It was _great_ to meet you." Inga remarked. "Thank you so much for _everything._ I'm really gonna miss you."

"Indeed, young lady." Queen Garee gently placed a hand on Betsy's shoulder. "And it goes without saying that you will always have a friend should you ever decide to visit our island. Do remember this."

Betsy nodded, smiling, in acknowledgement to the Queen. Her eyes then went wide in recognition of something she had just remembered. "Oh! Inga…" She fished in a pocket of her outfit, hoping what she had put there was still where it was…

…and she thankfully pulled out the pearl of wisdom. "…I think this is yours."

"OH! Right! Thanks!" He took the offered heirloom. "There were two others, though…a pink one, and a blue one. I…don't suppose you know where they might be?"

As Trot overheard this, she quickly loped over to Inga and pulled the blue pearl from beneath her tongue. She then pulled at Inga's shirt to get his attention and held the moist pearl up for him to see. "Is this the blue one?"

Inga of course nodded. "Yes! That's it." It didn't bother him much that the pearl was covered in Trot's saliva when he took it, and he simply polished the thick residue off anyway. "Thanks! All we need now is the pink one."

"When we get back to Oz, there's something we can use to find out where it is." Fyter assured. "We'll let you know once we get its location."

Inga nodded, smiling, in understanding. As Betsy had gone through everyone now in her goodbyes, he now turned to the four wizards of Ev. "I think we're ready to go home now."

Corin nodded, and gestured to the center of the courtyard. Once everyone was there, the four powerful spellcasters stood at four positions around the group, and then began the casting of an enchantment which made the entire entourage glow brightly. A platform of pure, bright light rose up from beneath them, and then shot up into the sky, seemingly taking the contented people of Pingaree with it.

The Pingaree entourage re-appeared, feet first, followed by the rest of their fully-intact bodies within the island community's town square, where a couple of them dropped to the ground to literally kiss the soil of their home. As they all returned to their homes, King Kitticut, Queen Garee, Prince Inga, Prince Bobo, and King Rinkitink headed for the royal palace, speaking of their experiences as they went.

Back at the royal palace's courtyard, the Scarecrow moved to the Shaggy Man and his brother. "You said you came from Butterfield? Where's that?"

"Oh, it's just a quaint little town in Kansas, but it's where my brother and I were born." The old vagabond replied. "I have no interest in going back there, though. I don't want to hear anything more about the matter of that debt."

The straw-stuffed advisor frowned curiously. "Debt?"

The vagabond's younger brother chuckled. "Someone there has been insisting on paying back a small loan my brother here gave to him. Twelve cents, I think."

" _Bah._ " The Shaggy Man dismissively waved. "Money matters _disgust_ me!"

"You should find the land of Oz quite inviting then!" The Scarecrow responded. "When Princess Ozma came to power, she abolished money. The Wizard of Oz had a coin system in place when he ruled Oz, but Ozma put a stop to all that."

" _Really?_ " The Shaggy Man looked very interested now. "I should very much like to see your Oz, then! It already sounds a lot more inviting than the world my brother and I used to share!"

"We have to go rescue Ozma first, though." The Scarecrow reminded. "That's where we're going next."

The old man nodded. "And I'm sure you don't mind if we join your party?"

The straw-stuffed advisor shrugged, smiling. "Sounds fine to me!"

Everitas motioned for Dorothy and Trot to step up to him. "Perhaps you would like us to help you both look a little more human now?"

"I'd rather you did that in Jinxland. Before you release our friends from the stone spell." Dorothy replied. "You should do it in front of the witches, too. They're the ones who made us this way, after all."

The bald leader of the wizard quartet frowned at this idea. "Will we need to fight them?"

"Oh, no. They've been defeated." Dorothy assured. "My king's friends…a group called the Legion of Courage…is watching over them. Their leader's ability to cast spells was taken from her, and the others are bound up. You won't have to worry about those witches at all."

"Ahhh, I see." Everitas replied. "And you want them to see their own magic broken. I like how you think, my dear."

The sound of clopping hooves could be heard getting louder, and when all eyes turned to the direction of the sound, Betsy's eyes widened as she saw a familiar beast walking into the courtyard alongside Neville Evince.

"HANK!" She raced over to hug her beloved mule, wrapping her arms around the beast's furry neck. "So great t' _see_ you again! I'm so happy you're OK!"

"Th' feelin's mutual, Betsy." Hank responded, in his customarily low-toned and somewhat lazy-sounding voice. "I was startin' t' lose hope. Thought I'd nev'r see ya again. Where's all those Pingaree people?"

"They're all back home, safe an' sound." Betsy assured. "We're gettin' ready t' go an' free Princess Ozma an' the oth'rs. Then we're goin' back t' Oz."

Hank nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

The old woman called Mira now raised her hand, and then cleared her throat loudly to get everyone's attention. "Uh…I…hope none of you mind if I join the party as well? This is the most excitement I've had since I was taken from my quaint little home near Noland!"

The Scarecrow shrugged, smiling. "Fine by me!"

"Sure." Dorothy added. "Just watch where you step is all."

"Oh, I will!" Mira answered, nodding rapidly.

Nimmie Amee stepped over to Marie. "Are you still strong enough to take us all?"

"Oh yes, Empress." Marie assured. "We still have more than enough strength. If it was one of us, it would be more taxing. If it's all four of us? Never an issue."

"Then let's get underway." Fyter remarked as everyone gathered at a spot indicated by the other three wizards. "Our friends in Jinxland have been petrified long enough."

When transporting the people of Pingaree back to their homes, they faced the ones being magically relocated. As the wizards were joining the entourage from Oz in their relocation to Jinxland, they faced away from the group they surrounded, spoke their incantations, and traced a portion of a circle in front of them. Once the glowing lines connected to a full circle, the platform of energy rose up beneath them, and rose up to swallow them all whole.

Their respective visions blurred for a bit before coming back into focus. When clarity returned to their eyes, the entourage from Oz found themselves back in the familiar landscape called Jinxland.

They found themselves in the midst of the many cottages that made up the residential section of the isolated region, and both Dorothy and the Lion scanned the area, sniffing around for any sign of the temporary HQ they had established during the Legion's occupation.

When their eyes scanned the area above them, they saw a lone, winged baboon making a pass overhead. His own eyes glanced below, and he nearly lost concentration on his flying when he gasped in surprise.

Trot lit up like a lightbulb upon seeing her winged simian friend. "KOUP!"

Koup slowly settled to the ground now, landing right next to the monkey girl, who wrapped her furry arms around him. As he was similarly happy to see her, he did likewise. "Ahhh, seestah Trot! Righ-tee-ous ta see ya, me seestah." He pulled away to look down on his prized pupil in monkey business. "Deedja get de rock out'a ya now?"

"Yup! We've got it!" Trot responded. "The same four wizards that got it out are gonna help us free Ozma and the others!"

"Before we do that," Everitas announced. "There's one other very important thing that needs to be done." He then stepped over to Dorothy. "Now I have been a wizard in Ev for a fairly long time. As such, I know Glinda very well, and if you and your friend from California here were transformed by wicked witches, I don't think Glinda would react too well to see what they had done to you."

Dorothy nodded. "I understand." She then walked over to the Lion. "I…I meant what I said, you know. It would have been nice to serve you as one of your advisors. You know…as a dog."

The Lion smiled, gently placing a paw on her shoulder. "Yer always gonna be a part a' my Legion, kiddo. Whether ya got paws on ya or not. But I tink it's time fer ya ta shed dat doggie fur now."

The canine girl wrapped her furry arms around the leonine monarch, and the Lion did likewise. They hugged each other very tightly. "And you'll always be my king in the Quadling Forest." Dorothy gently admitted.

At that moment, the sound of a loud roar broke the tender moment. Voices the Lion recognized to be Bo's and Shade's were then heard, in tones of distress, as a small figure was caught awkwardly hopping around close to the soil below near Corin Everhart.

Leaping out, angrily, with a roar of challenge was the tigress called Rouse. With every jerk of her head to look for her apparent quarry came a quick snarl. Clearly, something had set her off once again.

The panda woman called Bo, and the panther whose name was Shade then emerged. The sight of their missing friends obviously surprised them. "Commander!" Bo smiled to the Lion. "Welcome back!"

"What's goin' on here, Discipline Offica?" His paws went to his waist as he frowned. "Yer not fightin' Rouse dere again, are ya?"

"No, no. Not at all, sir." Shade explained. "There was a bug hopping around Rouse. Guess it was curious. Rouse did tell it to go away, but the darn thing couldn't take the hint. As you can see, she's lost her patience. Again."

Corin, however, allowed the small creature…which turned out to be a grasshopper…to settle on the palm of his hand as Shade spoke. He kept his voice gentle as he spoke his assurances to the insect, raising the hand up carefully.

The frowning Lion stepped in front of Rouse now. "Wha'd I tell ya 'bout bein' a bad kitty?" He scolded.

Although she emitted a low, long growl, perhaps one of frustration, her ears and furry head lowered as she eased herself. "Sorry, sir."

Everitas and Neville stepped over to Corin curiously. "Whaddya got there, Corin?" Neville asked.

"Undoubtedly the most unusual-looking grasshopper that I've ever seen." The bearded wizard replied, bringing his hand up so his other two colleagues could get a good look. "It appears to be a bit…lame, judging by one of its legs. See it?"

Neville had to squint his eyes, but he finally caught the oddity. "Oh yeah, I see it. Looks like a peg of some kind."

Everitas brought up his own hand, placing the edge of it next to Corin's, so as to permit the insect to go from Corin's hand to the other. Corin tilted his hand a bit to get it moving.

"Be careful, Everitas." Corin quietly advised. "He looks rather nervous."

"Shhhh." He gently hissed unto the grasshopper, who remained still in the hand of the elder wizard. He then hovered his other hand over the peg-legged insect curiously for a moment, closing his eyes.

"And for good reason." Everitas remarked as his eyes opened. "This is no insect. There are trace elements of channeling powder upon this grasshopper."

"Wow. These wicked witches must've been _busy._ " Neville observed. "A dog, a monkey, a grasshopper…"

"I'll restore this man myself." Everitas then looked to Corin. "You restore the monkey. Neville, see to Dorothy."

"Ah, actually, I'm still workin' on restorations, remember?" Neville warily noted. "I think Marie would be the better choice."

Everitas nodded. "Very well. In the meantime, perhaps you can have one of the others show you where their petrified friends are."

"On it, boss." Neville hurried away to approach the Scarecrow, who already began leading the Chicago-born wizard towards the Jinxland palace.

Corin stepped over to Trot with a somewhat merry disposition. "So, my dear. Are you ready to…evolve, so to speak?"

Trot didn't immediately respond. Her head then turned to Koup, who was standing nearby. "I need a minute, please." Her sullen voice was heard responding.

Corin nodded in understand. "Of course."

Loping over to the winged baboon, she couldn't help but feel sad now. Her voice was tinged with sorrow as she spoke. "I'll miss being a monkey with you."

The baboon was quick to wrap the monkey in a tight hug. "Koup know, Koup know, seestah. I an' I knew dees day be comin'. Dat time be now, chile. Time ta be da brave girl ya was, an' find who ya came for."

As they pulled away, Koup rubbed a simian hand along the side of Trot's furry head, smiling. "Ya be real good monkey, ya know. I an' I always call ya friend, no matta what ya be."

A happy tear fell from Trot's eye as she returned Koup's smile. Wiping it away, she loped back over to Corin and looked up at him. "I'm ready."

The wizard nodded, already passing his hands over Trot as he intoned mystical incantations under his breath. His hands began to glow as the fur on the little girl's simian body now began to recede inward. The bulges on her face and her eyebrows also began painlessly diminishing along with her large, round gut. Her curious eyes remained on her arm as the thick fur there continued to grow smaller and smaller until there was nothing but young, hairless human flesh upon it. She gave the fingers of her restored human hands a wiggle as she held them up, visually confirming their restoration.

Those hands then rubbed at her own face, which was still slightly simian. Those oddities were diminishing, however, and in the next moment, they were completely gone.

Corin then tossed up a piece of gray cloth, and cast another enchantment upon it. The cloth disappeared before it began to fall, and then reappeared as a one-piece gray dress, which covered Trot's young human form as she began to rise to her feet, still looking at her arms.

Her eyes then went to Corin, and she smiled. "Thank you."

Corin cordially bowed. "My pleasure, young lady."

"Ooooh!" Koup loped over. "Koup _knew_ you 'ave good look as brave girl! Look bettah den monkey, even!"

Trot giggled at this. "Thanks."

And then, a voice she never thought she'd ever hear again followed. "Trot? _Trot?_ Is that _you?_ "

The California girl's eyes widened as she gasped aloud. Turning to the source of the voice confirmed that her search…the very reason she went out onto the seas in the first place…was finally over.

The bearded, balding old man was similarly wearing a simple gray outfit…no doubt created by Everitas upon his restoration, as Corin had done…as the retired, peg-legged sailor hurriedly moved closer to Trot, who was already rushing over in her disbelief.

"CAP'N BILL!" She cried out as she jumped into his waiting arms, picking her up and squeezing her in a loving embrace. He, too, was streaming happy tears as he laughed. Trot sobbed joyfully as she continued to hold on to the lost former sea captain.

Corin stepped over to Everitas as they watched the happy reunion, as did everyone else. Dorothy had also asked for a moment to observe before Marie began her own restoration enchantment. They were now smiling happily upon witnessing the little girl hugging the sailor she had hoped to find.

Mira nudged the Shaggy Man. "Lucky girl, eh?" The smiling old woman indicated Trot.

The old vagabond nodded. "Indeed."

"So where are you off to after we're done here, hmm?" Mira then asked. "Back to Butterfield?"

The Shaggy Man shook his head. "No, no. I'll never be going back there. I figure I might see what this Oz place is like. From what I hear about it, I'm quite curious."

Mira nodded as her eyes returned to Trot and Bill Weedles.

Marie now turned to Dorothy, gently placing a hand on her furry shoulder as she led her out into a hallway, and then into an empty room. "It's your turn now, my dear."

Dorothy nodded, her ears lowering a little.

Seeing this, Marie's head tilted curiously. "Why, Dorothy…you seem a bit crestfallen. How come?"

The canine girl sighed. "I was starting to like this. I know I shouldn't, but…"

Marie giggled. "I'm rather fond of dogs myself. I remember owning one back where I came from. I still miss him, too."

Dorothy now looked curious, remembering what Neville said about where he came from. "And…where did you…?"

"I was born in England." Marie interjected. "Essex, to be exact."

This visibly surprised Dorothy, and her furry ears raised back up. "Wow…Neville told me he's from Chicago."

Marie nodded, smiling. "And Corin Everhart is from Wales. It was Everitas who found us all and brought us to the land of Ev. Told us that _this_ land was our real home. He had to travel through three different time periods…the past, and even the future…to find us."

Dorothy now looked amazed. "Why?"

"Oh, that's quite a little story, I'm afraid." Marie responded. "But we don't want to keep Glinda waiting any longer, do we?"

"No, I…I guess not…" Dorothy replied. "…but I'd really like to hear that story sometime soon. I mean, I came to Oz from Kansas, and Trot came from California."

"And Betsy from Oklahoma." Marie added. "The fairies from Burzee made very good judgments when they touched you all."

Dorothy nodded. "I can't help but wonder who it was that touched _me._ "

Marie shrugged. "It's very rare for someone to discover exactly who it was that marked you when you were born. You may never actually find out, but that shouldn't trouble you, my dear. Although I'm fairly certain that whoever it was, they would not want to see you covered in all this fur."

The canine girl nodded again. "You're right. Go ahead, Marie. I'm ready."

With a nod of acknowledgement, Marie closed her eyes, and began intoning the same incantations Corin used. Her hands began to glow, and Dorothy could already feel the fur on her body begin to recede.

Memories flashed through Dorothy's head as the digitigrade shape of her legs began to painlessly modify, the front part of her feet beginning to recede back towards the heels. Memories of the times she had spent with the Lion as a dog, and the adventures she experienced as a furry member of the Legion of Courage. As she felt her ears move back down to the sides of her head, her mind now began to dwell upon more unexpected memories. Memories she did not recall experiencing.

Memories of being fed, and cared for, by the one-eyed witch called Blinkie. She could not help but admit to a fondness for these strange moments, much as there was a part of her that wanted to admit otherwise as she saw the canine pads on her less furry palms and fingers dissolve.

The tail behind her had also dissolved to a fleshy nub, which continued to wiggle until it flattened right into her bare, hairless posterior.

A gray dress formed around her bare body next as Dorothy Gale…once again restored to her human form…took a deep, relieved breath. Even after her restoration, a part of her still missed being a dog.

Marie, however, looked a bit exhausted. She could see drops of sweat running down the sides of her head as she panted.

"Marie?" Dorothy moved quickly over to the wizardess. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, yes, dear." Marie assured, raising a hand in restraint as she lowered to a knee. "I-I just need a moment to recover here. You go on ahead. I'll come back out there in a…in a few minutes."

Still looking concerned, Dorothy nodded as she began to backtrack. "Thank you, Marie. I…I'll see you when you come back in."

Once the restored Kansas girl stepped back into the room where the others were, Betsy was the first to notice her, and she ran over, smiling. "DOR'THY!"

The lion also hurried over as Dorothy and Betsy hugged. Trot brought Bill over, and the other members of the Legion of Courage similarly headed over to the restored Kansas girl. Mira, the Shaggy Man, and his brother joined the growing group as well.

"Finally back ta yer ol' self, eh, girlie?" The Lion mused, smiling.

"Oh, my, my, my!" Mira seemed to marvel at the sight of Dorothy as she blushed. "What a darling young thing you are behind all that fur!" She patted affectionately at Dorothy's cheek. "Welcome back, dear."

The Shaggy Man and his brother bowed courteously. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Gale." The older man remarked. "It's nice to know I'm not the only one from Kansas to be among such fascinating surroundings!"

"You're from Kansas?" Dorothy asked.

"A little town called Butterfield." The Shaggy Man replied. "I…stepped away to rescue _this_ young scamp." He indicated his younger brother.

The gentleman next to him extended a hand. "And I'm the young scamp who happens to be his brother."

Dorothy shook the hand, smiling. "Nice to meet you both."

"Me next! Me next!" Trot made her way through, practically dragging the old sailor with her. "Cap'n Bill, this is my friend Dorothy. Dorothy, this is Cap'n Bill Weedles. He's my dad's friend."

The old sailor smiled as he also extended a well-worn, somewhat calloused hand. "Nice to meet ya, Dorothy. Trot here tells me you're a pretty big deal in these parts."

Dorothy humbly shrugged. "I'm just me. That's all I've ever wanted to be, really."

"DOROTHY! Oh, rapture!" The Scarecrow, with Neville behind him, had returned from the palace. "You're back to your old self!" He wrapped his stuffed arms around the Kansas girl lovingly.

Neville went over to Everitas. "We found their friends. We should be able to restore them all at once, but…as for all these others…"

"We'll leave them to Glinda." Everitas assured. "She is, after all, the most powerful sorceress in the land. She should quite easily be able to perform the mass restoration."

They then saw Marie step back in from where she was resting. Neville's eyes widened in surprise. "Wow! Marie looks _spent!_ "

"Yes, I wonder why?" Everitas and Neville curiously headed towards her, as did Corin. "A restoration enchantment upon a single person should not be very taxing."

Corin held her up. "Are you well, lady?"

Marie nodded despite her visible fatigue. "Well enough to help you undo the stone enchantment."

Everitas nodded. "Trot gave me the gorgon's eye. Let's go."

The four wizards of Ev then began following Neville back to the palace. The Scarecrow noticed this, and motioned for Dorothy and the others to follow him. The rest of the group began following as well, with all the members of the Legion of Courage flanking them to keep them all safe.

Princess Gloria waited for them inside the palace. "Welcome back, my friends." Her eyes then fell upon the bald wizard. "I am the princess Gloria. I had the Legion move the statues to the largest room in the palace."

"Everitas." He introduced Corin, Neville, and Marie next. "We should be able to restore them, but I'm afraid we must leave it to Glinda to release the others."

Gloria nodded. "I understand. Do whatever you need to do. Should you require anything, please let me know."

The four wizards stood still for a moment, closing their eyes in deep concentration as Everitas held the Medusa Stone in one of his hands. They began to breathe slowly, in through the nose first, and then out of their mouths. They then turned to each other as the elder wizard held the stone between them. Each of them touched the stone now, keeping their eyes closed in their deep concentration.

Those hands that touched the stone now emitted a soft white glow, and as they had done with their relocation magic, they traced four portions of a large circle upon the ground. Once the glowing lines formed a full circle, they raised their hands up before the transparent dome that had formed and began chanting incantations in unison, repeating the single, unintelligible line three times. Their eyes remained closed the entire time as Dorothy, Trot, the Lion, and the rest of the group silently observed the ritual a short distance away. Gloria stood beside Dorothy, eyes wide with awe.

Mists of pure magic energy now seemed to be coming from the surfaces of the stone statues, and then their gray stone surfaces began to display colors other than gray.

In fact, it seemed like the stone surfaces were dissolving as Dorothy and her friends watched. Petrified flesh and petrified dress began to show their true colors now, although there was no movement. The Lion saw the solidified form of the Hungry Tiger shedding its stone in favor of his black-striped orange fur.

The quartet of wizards kept their eyes closed, and their glowing hands raised as the stone colors and surfaces were almost completely gone, and the voice of the princess Ozma…strange for the fact that it sounded like the voice on a phonograph record spinning to full speed…could now be heard as movement was slowly being restored to them all. "…iiiiss? Weee caame in pea…huh?"

Emperor Nick Chopper looked similarly surprised as he looked around. "Goodness! Wha…what _happened?_ "

Ozma's eyes first fell upon the four wizards as they lowered their hands. She took a cautious step towards them. "Who…who are you?"

Glinda also looked upon the four wizards as Ozma spoke. She only recognized one of them. "Oh! Dear friend! Fancy seeing _you_ here, Everitas!"

The bald wizard smiled. "Milady Glinda. Yes, your friends over here…" He indicated the visibly relieved group. "…came to our rescue after we had a stroke of misfortune in the Nome Dominions, so we came here to Jinxland to return the favor."

Ozma's eyes then found Gloria, and she frowned warily. " _There_ you are. How could you…"

"Wait! Your highness, wait!" Dorothy quickly interjected, raising her hands in restraint. "It wasn't her fault!"

"I'm sorry, your highness." Gloria lowered her head regretfully. "I was…not myself."

"It was _my_ fault."

All heads turned to Trot, much as some of them had wished she should have remained silent.

Bill, standing next to her, looked a little surprised. "Huh? What're you talking about?"

Trot walked towards Ozma now. "I was tricked by a group of witches into using a magic stone on you. They told me they could help me find my friend. They told me you were bad people."

"We took care o' dose bad ol' witches, though." The Lion added. "My Legion has 'em all locked up somewhere."

"And they're all quite powerless, too." Gloria smiled. "Thanks to your friends."

"I'm not surprised." Locasta responded. "We did come with a pretty resourceful team."

"And apparently, it grew into a nice little army." The Hungry Tiger mused.

Glinda smiled over to Dorothy. "Well done, my honorary handmaiden." She gave her a knowing wink, which made the Kansas girl blush.

"Lady Glinda, if we may…" Corin stepped forward. "…there are others here in Jinxland who are currently being held to the same stone enchantment. Would it be possible for you to release them from it?"

Glinda nodded. "Of course. As the enchantment was able to provide me with more rest than was necessary, I should be able to free them all…but I will need the stone that the girl had used."

Everitas handed the Medusa Stone over to the restored Good Witch of the South, who examined it for a moment. "Hmmm. Not a stone at all. This is the petrified eye of a gorgon! I…won't ask how it was acquired." Glinda then pulled out a wand from the folds of her red robes.

"Can you really set _all_ of them free?" Gloria asked. "They turned _everyone_ to stone!"

Glinda, however, was already making circular passes over the stone with her wand, spinning the circles wider and wider until it seemed like small, glowing motes of light began to shower from the skies above. Now whirling the wand above in wider circles, the radius of the shower of lights widened as everyone else watched in their amazement.

Whatever enchanted stone surfaces the motes of light touched caused the stone statues…even those beneath the cottage that was used as the Legion's temporary headquaters…to glow. The emanation of magical light grew brighter and brighter from each petrified human form until they finally began to move. Slowly at first, and then gradually becoming more normal. Those who were speaking when they were petrified briefly resumed their dialogue before they stopped to wonder what had happened.

And as none of the stone statues were damaged in any way, even during the battles with the witches, each and every one of them were alive and well.

Naturally, a mass exodus began as the freed citizens of Jinxland…men, women, and children alike, young and old…approached the palace, all of them confused.

When they reached the palace, the scent of food became stronger, and they saw that there were already a variety of guests…some of them strange and unusual-looking…seated at the array of tables that had apparently been put in place. On each plate in front of each seat was a fresh serving of food.

A glow at the tip of Glinda's wand died down as the Good Witch of the South…the one who had created this grand setup, tables and all…lowered her wand.

Gloria smiled as the citizens began to arrive in the large, open area. "Questions later, my friends. For now…let's eat!"

* * *

The treacherous Goog L'Goo had been perpetually frowning when he found that he had been locked into a set of manacles in the palace's dungeon. All of his yells and cries for help went unanswered.

It seemed like an eternity before he finally heard steps moving in his direction. Indeed, there were _many_ footfalls approaching, and he wondered if the time had finally come for an interrogation.

Gloria was the first of the entourage he saw, followed by two of the anthropomorphic animals that were a part of this 'legion of courage' the princess had apparently recruited. They were very carefully tending to another more familiar-looking old man.

A man who Goog had robbed of his youth with the aid of those crazy witches.

The old man looked very weak now, and the two beasts…the Lion they called their commander, and the panda woman…carefully laid him down near where Goog was chained up.

Behind Gloria were the Kansas girl, who no longer resembled a dog, the girl who vaguely resembled the fat monkey, and the straw-stuffed Scarecrow. Behind the Scarecrow was a tall and very beautiful-looking red-haired woman with a set of flowing red robes.

All of them fixed unpleasant looks upon the treacherous suitor once the old man…Pon…had been set down.

Gloria broke the silence. "It's time to answer for the gardener's boy, Goog."

Goog sighed loudly. "I was _set up._ You want a culprit? Find Krewl! He _started_ this whole mess! He was willing to do whatever was necessary to…"

"SHUT. UP." Gloria firmly and loudly interjected. "We didn't come here to interrogate you, seeing as how you'll just stink the dungeon up more than it already does with your lies."

Goog now began to look nervous. "So…what do you want from me?"

As the red-robed woman pulled a wand forth from her robes, Gloria fixed a very ominous look upon the crafty young man. "Guess."

The red-robed woman now stepped forward and aimed the glowing tip of her wand towards Goog. She then sweeped the wooden stick in an arc towards the unconscious old man lying nearby. As if she were literally sweeping the ground, the red-haired sorceress kept sweeping the wand from Goog to Pon, and streams of light and energy surged forth from Goog's body to that of the gardener's son.

The others watched as Goog's youth began to advance significantly. He looked like he was getting gradually weaker…

…while Pon began looking gradually younger. With every broad sweep of the wand, Glinda effectively transferred the stolen youth back to its rightful owner, the old man becoming younger and even smaller while Goog gradually became more and more decrepit.

Gloria's eyes were logically on Pon, and happy tears began to fall from her eyes as she saw the older gardener's son become a much more handsome and familiar young man. This was truly the face of love in the eyes of the princess of Jinxland, who herself was restored from a wicked enchantment. This was the man she had always known she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

This was the man who she was certain would make an excellent and most benevolent King for Jinxland.

As old as Googly-Goo was before the age-transfer spell was cast by Blinkie's witches, he looked far worse by the time Glinda was done. Perhaps deliberately, she had transferred a bit more in the way of youth to the more deserving gardener's boy, who was once again the young boy he used to be at long last.

And although Pon remained unconscious, they could see, to their relief, that he was breathing steadily.

Dorothy, who was behind Gloria, then whispered a suggestion to the princess. After a moment of thought, she wiped the tears from her face and began to lower down to a knee. She lowered down even more to the ground until she was able to connect her lips to his.

She kept her lips pressed against his for the next quiet moment.

Slowly, the young eyes of the gardener's boy opened, the eyelids fluttering a bit in his return to consciousness.

His young voice was the next thing the group heard. "Gloria?"

Gloria rubbed a hand at the boy's cheek as she smiled. "Pon. My dearest Pon."

It then began to dawn upon Pon that he was no longer weak and decrepit. One glance at the horribly-aged semblance of Googly-goo confirmed this. As he rose to a sitting position, he saw familiar faces, and others he did not know, but were smiling happily down at Pon and Gloria.

He smiled when his eyes fell on one of them. "Dorothy."

The smiling Kansas girl had to wipe away joyful tears of her own. "You look wonderful, Pon."

"You sure do!" The Scarecrow agreed. "Wow…you're a really lucky girl, your majesty! He's quite a catch!"

Pon had to laugh at the compliments. "Thank you, both of you." He then rose to his feet. "All of you."

A growl now came from the withered old man still sitting on the ground. He had a hateful expression on his face.

Gloria glanced at Googly-Goo in contempt. "What do you think, my love?" She then turned her head to Pon. "Should we keep him here."

A long moment of silence followed as Pon thought on his answer, his eyes lingering on the decrepit old man.

Most, including Gloria, were shocked at his answer when he finally spoke. "Let him go."

"Huh?" The Lion frowned in his bewilderment. "Even afta what dis bum _did_ to ya?"

Glinda looked down at Googly-Goo pitifully. "I think I know why he is making that choice. There is not much more you could do to him now. He has already lost a great deal. To take anything else from him would be…excessive. Perhaps even fatal."

"And I wouldn't wish that upon him no matter how horrible he is." Pon thoughtfully added.

"Heh. He's in a prison of his own making." The staff-armed panda observed.

"Exactly, Bo." Pon responded. "And I don't want to see him stay in this one."

Gloria hesitantly nodded in agreement. "All right, Pon. It will be done."

Bo then frowned, sensing a presence behind her. Whistling her fighting staff in the direction of the presence, she saw the panther called Shade about to speak.

"Uh…it's only me, Discipline Officer." Shade wryly remarked.

A frowning Bo rested the staff on her furry shoulder. "Yes?"

"What's up dere, Shade?" The Lion asked.

"We have someone subdued upstairs." Shade reported. "Seems there was a mass revolt going before the stone enchantment fell. The Legion didn't even need to lift a paw to catch him. He's got eyes like glowing coals. Kind of…intimidating, really."

Pon and Gloria smirked to each other, fully aware of who this was, and they spoke the name in unison.

"Krewl."


	15. XV: Judgments in Jinxland

**XV: Judgments in Jinxland**

As they had effectively returned the favor for their rescue, the four wizards of Ev…Everitas, Corin Everhart, Marie Evangeline, and Neville Evince…chose to return to their land rather than stay and observe what was to happen to the witches, the traitors, and the deposed King of Jinxland. A touch of regret was on Marie's face as they returned to the city of Evna, relocating themselves just outside of the front gates.

Everitas then turned to face Corin and Neville, frowning as his hands went to his waist. "I thought I told the two of you _not_ to come and rescue me."

"You realize how many people were askin' about ya?" Neville gestured towards the city. "Do you even know how long you've been gone?"

"Besides…in all fairness, we didn't actually rescue you, Everitas." Corin reasoned. "We _tried,_ yes. I will admit that. But…"

"But look at how you wound up. Struck dumb, and then turned into gems." Everitas interjected. " _Foresight,_ gentlemen. _Anticipation._ Clearly, you still have a lot to learn about wizardry if you're just going to rush in to a rescue mission without some kind of plan! You're lucky that twisted Regent of ours didn't kidnap a few more women while we were gone!"

"Master, if I may..." Corin stepped up to the elder wizard. "…I don't think the could-haves or should-haves matter much right now. All appears to be well now. The Royal Family was liberated, Roquat was deposed and banished, Evardo the fifteenth is to become our new king, and the four of us are back together again."

"Among a lot of _other_ good things." Neville added. "Namely, all those people from Oz that we met."

Everitas nodded in agreement. "I had a feeling you would find Dorothy's plight interesting, Neville."

The Chicago-born wizard shrugged, smiling. "We're not the _only_ outsiders, boss. Betsy's from Oklahoma, and that Trot kid lived in California."

"As was the old sailor I restored." Everitas added. He then turned to Marie. "Which reminds me…how come you looked so tired out after you returned Dorothy's humanity?"

Neville and Corin now faced Marie curiously as well. "You've done that kind of thing before, after all." Corin noted. "Did something go wrong? Were you not able to completely heal her wound, so to speak?"

Marie was silent, and a bit regretful in her expression before she raised her head up to answer.

"It was _deep._ "

* * *

Between the angry citizens of Jinxland coming after him and the Legion of Courage being able to track him down, there was no place for Krewl to run. Especially with Gloria restored and Blinkie's entire coven neutralized, along with Blinkie herself.

It was decided that since this was the jurisdiction of the resident nobility, which in this case was the princess Gloria, the matter of an inquiry into the events that led up to the mass petrification would be handled solely by the jinxlanders themselves, with Ozma, Glinda, and Locasta serving as advisors.

And, if necessary, pacifiers.

Although they were clearly and unmistakably at fault for what had happened to the citizens of Jinxland, there was one question that required elaboration, and only Krewl himself could answer it.

His partners-in-crime needed to be present, however, and so the withered old man called Googly-goo, the powerless little witch Blinkie, her five coven partners…Ness, Sima, Cheralyn, Marge, and Pippa…and all their stubbornly loyal apprentices(save for Tilda, who remained at the Emerald City) were all brought in for the hearing. Before their collars were removed, Glinda had the five thirsty witches drink from bowls filled with the same potion mixture that deprived the witch called Mombi of her magical knowledge. Locasta was charged with watching over the apprentices, making sure they would cause no trouble. She had already surrounded them all with an invisible dome within which they were unable to use their witchcraft.

The guests from the Oz mainland, as the jinxlanders called it, had their own section near Gloria and Pon, who would be the primary inquisitors. The Scarecrow requested, and was granted, a place near the inquisitors in case they required the aid of his naturally strong wisdom.

The crusaders of the Legion of Courage had been placed in various positions around the inquisition area, which was the Jinxland Palace's large courtyard. Koup was airborne, too, and kept a close watch on the skies above the courtyard.

Confident that there would be no trouble, the murmurs of the crowd were silenced when Gloria raised her hands up high. Lowering them, she turned her head to the former King of Jinxland.

"It is clear that you have taken a great and terrible initiative against the people of our land, hiring the talents of a coven of wicked witches to help you." Gloria began. "The only question that remains unanswered is why."

Krewl smirked as he stepped forward to answer, fixing his fiery, glowing eyes upon the princess. "Ours is a very weak and feeble land, princess, but it was one which has prospered under the economy policies the Wizard of Oz once established at the Emerald City. Even after such rules were foolishly abolished by the princess Ozma when she came to power, we chose to remain a province defined by our _own_ economy, much as some of us thought that Ozma would force her policies upon us at some point." Krewl fixed a gaze upon Ozma herself as she said this.

Ozma, however, kept her expression neutral.

Krewl then turned back to Gloria. "Independence and isolation keeps us unique, my dear Gloria. If you had taken my advice and married Googly-goo, we would have been the richest and the strongest of all the economy-based lands in Oz."

"Which is nothing my father would have cared much for." Gloria disgustedly shot back.

"Which is precisely why he is _gone,_ princess." Krewl reminded, maintaining his smirk. "Strength does not come from any kind of pride in a virtue as… _ridiculous_ as humility. It comes from a willingness to take the initiative and act. From a willingness to do something other than banal discussion. I had thought that when Blinkie and her coven tried to educate you about this, that you would have begun to understand. It never occurred to me that their efforts worked a little _too_ well."

"Yes, I was told that one of my first actions while I was under their horrible spell was to deal with you." Gloria mused, in a tone which reminded Dorothy of the cold-hearted young woman she used to be. "I think that was the only honestly good thing that I did. An action I do not regret having done."

"If this province were still under your father's rule, there would have been a _riot_ by now." Krewl angrily noted. "I was trying to prevent Jinxland from de-stabilizing! Why else do you think I felt compelled to turn all the malcontents to stone? It was the only way to silence them without _killing_ them!"

"You can stop trying to justify your actions, Krewl." Gloria calmly raised a hand in restraint as she spoke. Lowering the hand, she turned to the observing mass of jinxlanders. "Is there anyone among you who will speak for you? One whose voice mostly, if not completely, represents the whole?"

After a moment of silence, a middle-aged woman with a pleasant smile stepped forward to answer. "With all respect, your highness, he is standing next to you."

The Scarecrow's eyes widened. "Me? How is that possible? I don't live in Ji…" The straw-stuffed advisor then saw Pon arch an eyebrow, smiling, as he looked back at the Scarecrow. "…oh, right."

Gloria turned to Pon now. "Do they still wish a land defined by its economy?"

"Before I was captured by the witches, I had been talking with many in Jinxland about this." Pon replied. "I can truthfully tell you that while there are those who somehow find merit in the economy system, those people are thankfully few in comparison to those who would like to see things change."

" _Ridiculous!_ " Krewl yelled. "Ask them all if they're only supporting such a change for fear of reprisal!"

Pon defiantly turned his head to Krewl. "No such sentiments were ever raised."

" _Liar._ " Krewl angrily hissed.

"Krewl, I think it has become clear that happiness is not always bought." Gloria countered. "And even if that is still the case for some of the people of Jinxland, I think they'd be a little more willing to at least _try_ to exist the way the princess Ozma suggests, and dispense with the economy system entirely."

" _Bias!_ " Krewl barked, shooting an accusing finger towards Gloria. "Ozma and her people came to your rescue!"

"They came to _your_ rescue too, Krewl." Gloria calmly reminded. "Or have you forgotten that I had you turned to stone as well?"

"They released me so you could pass judgment on me." Krewl then gestured to the group from Oz. "And how convenient it is that your new friends get to watch."

"We freed you because it was the right thing to do!" Dorothy called out. "Even if you would never have done the same with us, had _we_ been the ones who were petrified!"

"Pfft. _Charity._ " Krewl disgustedly intoned. "Kynd was all about that too."

Gloria sighed in her disdain for Krewl's hard-hearted nature. She then looked to Glinda and nodded once, owing to a request she had made of the Good Witch of the South.

Glinda nodded back, and then stepped forward, looking to the group of jinxlanders. "At the request of the princess Gloria, I shall now apply an enchantment which will make it impossible for Krewl to lie. Gloria may ask three questions before the effect dissolves."

The red-robed, red-haired sorceress then pulled a wand and passed it over the head of the now very alarmed-looking former king of Jinxland, whose eyes flashed with fury as the wand glowed over his head. His reaction was not much different from a pain-sensitive child about to receive a necessary medicinal injection.

Yet, he did not feel any different once the enchantment settled upon him. Still, he now feared whatever questions were about to be asked as Gloria fixed her determined eyes upon him.

Gloria's first one surprised many who heard it. "Did you kill my father?"

Krewl snorted in derision upon hearing this question. He had already prepared his deception well in advance. Kynd died as the result of an accident.

Smirking, he gave his honest answer. "Yes."

This, of course, was not the answer he wanted his lips to give as he frowned in his complete shock, bringing his hands up to his own lips in disbelief.

"Did you kill him because a majority of my people wanted him gone?" she asked next.

"No." Again, Krewl was aghast over his own lips betraying his desperate need for a fabrication to cover for his actions.

A slight smile was on Gloria's face as she asked her final question. "Would you be content to become the gardener's assistant, to replace Pon?"

"I think I would like that, yes!" Krewl was even _more_ horrified to hear this come out of his mouth. No doubt Gloria was familiar with the older life he had in Jinxland, before his notions of establishing himself within the nobility began to corrupt his mind.

Pon looked to Gloria curiously. "But, I…I figured I'd go back to work now that this is all over."

"Oh, you'll be going back to work." Gloria assured, smiling. "But you'll be doing a much more important job, and one which I'm completely confident that you'll be able to do, and one which I'm totally willing to help you with, since I have a little more experience."

Pon now looked a little more wary. "Your highness…if you're suggesting that I become their…"

"That's a fantastic idea, your majesty!" The Scarecrow interjected. "Pon would be a _great_ king! Especially if you're going to be the Queen!"

Many angry shouts and condemnations were directed towards Krewl now, and the former ruler hatefully shouted back at the jinxlanders, denouncing the mob as traitors.

In the chaos of the moment, and before anyone could make a move to quell the mob, Dorothy noticed that someone was missing from among the assembled witches of Blinkie's coven.

Blinkie herself!

The Kansas girl was fortunate, however, to see her attempt a mad dash towards an exit from the palace's courtyard, and Dorothy dashed away from her friends to give chase. In the distance, she saw Brocius attempt an intervention, but the gorilla's larger size became his disadvantage as the now smaller Blinkie was able to evade his attempts to grab her.

Determined to keep the one-eyed witch from getting away, and confident that she had no spells to cast upon the Kansas girl in self-defense, Dorothy continued to run as fast as she could to try and keep the witch from escaping. She never once took her eyes off Blinkie as they ran.

She wanted to be able to keep her from getting out of the palace completely, but the crafty witch was able to get past the palace gate before the guards there noticed the smaller witch. They only mutually acknowledged that something was wrong when Dorothy dashed past the both of them.

The Kansas girl began to gain on Blinkie as they rushed their way through the grassy plains of Jinxland, and then the one-eyed witch suddenly turned around and shouted a single word, holding a hand out towards Dorothy.

" _HEEL!_ " Blinkie commanded.

Dorothy immediately began to slow down, her eyes widening in her confusion as a calming sensation dominated every inch of her body. She then dropped to her knees, helpless to resist the word that still had the power to neutralize her.

Blinkie let out a wicked cackle, seeing what had happened to the Kansas girl she had so thoroughly bewitched. "Good dog!" She wickedly mused as a pair of winged creatures descended from the skies towards the one-eyed witch.

They were not monkeys, however. They were humanoids with large bat wings for arms, and bat heads. As their clawed feet grabbed Blinkie and began to pull her into the skies, she continued to call down towards Dorothy. "HEEL! THAT'S RIGHT! _HEEL!_ THERE'S A GOOD DOG! AAAH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA _HAAAH!_ "

But as the bat creatures began to gain altitude, their limbs quickly grew tired, and the wicked trio dropped to the ground hard, much to Blinkie's horror.

A transparent bubble then materialized around Blinkie and the two bat creatures. Rising up, the bubble drifted past Dorothy as the Lion and Nick Chopper reached the neutralized Kansas girl, and floated towards the one who had stopped the escape attempt with her powerful magic: Glinda, who had materialized a few feet away from Dorothy as the bat-winged creatures were able to reach Blinkie.

Passing a hand over the slumbering bat creatures, they completely disappeared, the magic of the red-robed sorceress relocating them to Mount Phantastico, knowing full well what these beast-men were. Glinda then turned to Blinkie, approaching her, and then bending to a knee before the scowling, one-eyed witch who stared hatefully back at her.

"You and I are going to have a little chat when we arrive at my palace, dear." With an index finger lightly touching Blinkie before she could respond, the wicked witch immediately dropped into a deep slumber.

Nick and the Lion each took an arm, pulling a very weak and docile-looking Dorothy to her feet. They continued to hold her up as Glinda stepped over to the Kansas girl.

When Glinda reached a hand out to rub it along Dorothy's cheek, the young girl rubbed her face against the Good Witch's palm affectionately.

"C'mon, Dorothy! Snap out of it, will ya?" The worried Lion remarked.

"Dear me…" Glinda had a grave look on her face as she pulled her hand away. "…this enchantment runs _very_ deep."

"Can you help her at all, Glinda?" Nick asked, as Dorothy began shaking her head, as if coming out of a dizzy spell.

"I hope so, Emperor." Glinda responded, looking very unsure. "I really do."

"Whuuh…w-what happened?" Dorothy asked, looking confused and worried as she looked to Nick, and then the Lion. "I-I'm still me, aren't I?" She asked with a shaky voice.

"Oh yeah, yeah! Yer fine, kid!" The Lion assured as they made sure she could remain balanced on her feet before letting her go. "Ya just, ehhh…tripped up a little."

Dorothy put a hand to her head, still visibly baffled over her condition. "W..why do I feel s-so…ssso woo… _woozy?_ "

"We can talk about that once we've left Jinxland, Dorothy." Glinda advised, draping an arm, gently, over the weary Kansas girl's shoulders. "For now, let's go back to the courtyard. I believe they're going to render their decisions."

"But…B-Blinkie?" Dorothy asked.

"She will be coming with me." Glinda replied. "I will need you to join me as well, Dorothy, when we are done here."

The Kansas girl nodded, somewhat lazily. "Of course."

When they returned to the courtyard, they saw that Krewl on the ground, with Ozma standing over him, holding her long golden wand. The jinxlanders were all looking toward Pon, engaging in some kind of a public discussion.

Ozma whispered to the returning group so as not to disturb the public forum. "He was beginning to get a bit vile with the townspeople, so I just put Krewl to sleep. He'll be awake in a few hours."

"Awake an' locked away in a cage, I would hope." The Lion quietly mused.

"Or banished from Jinxland, at least." Nick added.

They then turned their attention to the jinxlanders.

"My friends…" Pon began, addressing the quiet citizens. "…you should know that I know absolutely _nothing_ about how to be a king, so I don't see how I could take on such a responsibility."

"I think you do, though, my love." Gloria moved in closer to Pon. "While Krewl was in power, who do you think was the strongest voice of opposition to his ways? A good leader is one who is trusted by many. Someone who can rally others to an ideal, or a crusade. You've done both."

Many voices spoke out in agreement.

"A good leader needs to have an excellent brain, too!" The Scarecrow offered. "You've shown that, even as an old man!"

"A good leader should always have a loving and caring heart, too." Nick added. "Just by this show of support here alone, it's entirely obvious!"

"You loved Gloria even while she was under that spell, Pon." Trot remarked. "If that isn't true love, I don't know what is."

"I tink I speak fer my entire Legion when I tell ya dat yer very, _very_ courageous, kid." The Lion added in agreement. "If ya could show dat as an old man, ya musta been a real powa-house da way ya are now, Pon!"

"You didn't judge any of us." Dorothy noted unto the unsure gardener's boy. "We came from another land, and accepted us as friends as well as allies. Even if they were changed by those wicked witches. You sympathized with us. And as Trot said, you knew there was good in Gloria even while her heart was frozen. You had _faith_. A great leader is defined by things like this, too."

"We're with ya, Pon!" One of the villagers cried out.

" _Please_ be our king!" A little girl loudly pleaded.

All the other voices now cried out in a babble of support for the notion as well. Pon felt overwhelmed by the show of support. He was speechless!

Gloria brought his lips to Pon's ear to speak softly and confidentially. "You don't have to say yes, you know. Even if you denied being their king, nothing will change between you and I. I love you, Pon. I always have, and I always will, whether I'm nobility or not."

The villagers gradually quieted down now, wondering what the princess and the gardener's boy were speaking about. Once all the voices were silent enough, Pon raised his voice enough to be heard.

"There's only one real thing I can say after all this, and I know that by doing so, I need to proceed to the obvious conclusion." Pon remarked, putting a curious expression on Gloria's face.

Pon then lowered to a knee, taking one of Gloria's hands into his own. He then looked up at the astonished princess. "I…hope I don't have to attempt this thirty-nine times, but…will you marry me, Gloria?"

Happy tears streamed down Gloria's face as she looked upon her dearest love, who was smiling with conviction back up at the princess.

She then nodded her head emphatically. "You only need to say it once, Pon. Yes! Thirty-nine thousand times, _yes!_ "

Gloria then pulled him up to hold him tightly as the crowds before them cheered loudly. The visitors from Oz similarly cried out in their elation.

The five neutralized witches, on the other hand, responded with mocking expressions of nausea and disgust, which was echoed by their apprentices as well.

Pon's father, a middle-aged man who was the much-loved gardener of Jinxland, spoke out next in his visible confusion. "Wait a minute…you do realize that by marrying Gloria, you're basically becoming our new king, right?"

Pon smiled to his dad as he answered. "My proposal to Gloria was my way of agreeing to become the new king, father…" Pon then went serious. "…that is, if we have your blessings."

And now, all eyes turned to the gardener for his response.

The gardener smiled. "You know very well I've been around since the times of King Kynd, my boy, and I loved, respected, and supported that man not just as a subject, but as a close and personal friend. Gloria knows this." He then stepped up a little closer to his son. "And you have no idea how proud I would be to have you as our king, son, 'cause I know you loved Kynd just as much as I do, and just as much as I know he loved you."

Bo raised his staff high. "LONG LIVE THE NEW KING AND QUEEN OF JINXLAND!"

Another cry in agreement filled the air as Pon and Gloria embraced and kissed each other.

But someone began approaching them now, slowly making his way towards Pon despite his decrepit physique. He had no hate in his face, though, as he moved, but voices around him began to protest the fact that he was approaching them to begin with.

Pon, however, raised his hands up in restraint as Googly-goo moved up towards him, and while Pon kept a short distance from him, he made sure the voices around them were quiet enough to hear him speak.

His voice was weak, but he was loud enough to be understood. "Y-you…you could have…kept me in the d-dungeon for what I did…but you didn't. You could have…you _should_ have…I-I don't deserve this…freedom…after what I did. I have n-nothing now…and I…I won't blame you for that. You're the better man…a-and I…I think you'll be a…a really good king." He managed a smile upon saying this, and not one reflecting a fabrication.

Googly-goo's eyes then welled up with tears of regret. "I-I'm so sorry for what I did to you…I'm so _sorry_ …I wouldn't blame you if y-you'd _never_ forgive me…" He then collapsed into a crying fit, lowering his head as he sobbed into his withered hands.

Ozma called out to the gardener's son. The head of her golden wand softly glowed as she spoke. "He isn't lying, Pon. He's speaking from the heart."

Pon nodded slowly, as he and Gloria looked down at Googly-goo sympathetically. "I know." Pon assured.

Rouse stepped over to Glinda, speaking confidentially. "Can we at least give him a little bit of his strength back? He can hardly move. I think he's shown enough regret to be able to at least stand upright."

Bo was surprised to hear this sentiment come from the one member of the Legion of Courage that she did not expect to propose this leniency to begin with.

Glinda gave the tigress a glance. "I'm afraid that's up to Googly-goo, not I."

As much as some of the others were visibly wary of the initiative, Pon was now standing right next to the kneeling Googly-goo as he continued to weep. Concerned villagers looking to Ozma were quietly assured that Pon was in no danger as the young gardener's boy moved up to the regretful old man.

Pon gently angled Googly-goo's head up to speak to him sympathetically. "What would you want, if we were to show our forgiveness?"

"Just…just a house." The old man replied. "I-I just…I want to be a simple man again. I don't…want…t-to get any younger. I don't want money…I just…I want to live alone. I won't bother anyone. I-I promise. Th-that's all I want. Yes…that's it. Could that…could that be done? I'll understand if…that's too much to ask for someone like…like me."

Gloria, who was standing nearby, heard this as well. It was Ozma's confirmation that he was speaking from his heart that made her more sympathetic as he gazed down upon the old man who once wanted her heart.

But after everything that had happened, everything the old man had apparently engineered, she found it difficult to respond to the old man's request. Gloria couldn't help but wonder if this was just a step towards his becoming a nasty person all over again. That this was an attempt at advantage. Could Googly-Goo be trusted this time, she wondered?

A large, bald, and muscular man with a mustache and beard practically rendered the judgment as he spoke. "I'll build you one. Get the foundations going, at least."

Another man stepped forward after a moment's consideration. "I'll see if I can get enough wood for the framework."

A tough-looking woman was the next to speak out. "We should get some bricks together. Make it a _really_ sturdy house."

Others began stepping forward, offering various resources to create the house the old man desired. Pon and Gloria beamed at this show of sympathy, as did the visitors from Oz.

Glinda stepped over to the happy couple. "Please let us know when the wedding is to occur. I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say that we would very much like to see you establish your union. For now, we must return to the Emerald City."

"I understand, milady Glinda." Gloria curtseyed respectfully to the Good Witch of the South. "Thank you all so much for coming to our aid. Your friends will always be welcome here in Jinxland for what they have done."

"Princess…if I may, I think there's something else that deserves mentioning." Pon remarked. "I'm not sure how you would feel about it, but…I'd like to at least discuss ending our isolation from the mainland. Perhaps create a group of bridges that would allow us to cross over the gorge."

Gloria smiled. "I think, if we can meet people who are as selfless as those who came to our rescue outside of Jinxland's borders, then we can absolutely consider this, my love."

"What will you do with those witches, your highness?" Glinda asked, gesturing to the perpetually sour-looking women who had contributed to the conspiracy.

"I don't think they will be much of a problem to us anymore, milady Glinda." Gloria responded. "Their apprentices, on the other hand, is a potential problem we may need a little help in addressing. You were able to eliminate the spellcasting abilities of Blinkie's five companions, but…"

"Well…my coven-sister, Locasta, has been wanting to take apprentices under her wing." Glinda suggested. "Perhaps under her tutelage, she can convince them all to be a little less wicked. If you will permit us to, that is."

Gloria frowned in confusion, however. "Coven-sister?"

"That basically means that while Locasta and I are not sisters by birth, we are nevertheless bound to each other's fate as witches." Glinda explained, smiling. "We made a pact formed in mutual trust and mutual love and respect. It is a bond that is as significant to the witches of a coven as the bond is between a mother and her daughter, or a father and his son."

Gloria nodded in her understanding. "As to the matter of the apprentices? I don't see a problem in handing them over to your coven-sister. I fancy she is a good teacher?"

"Oh, trust me, your highness. Locasta can be a very stern taskmaster." Glinda assured. "As much as she is a Good Witch, she also demands discipline as a teacher. If anyone stands a good chance of getting through the hard shell of a stubborn apprentice in witchcraft, it is Locasta."

"Let her know she has my permission, then." Gloria responded. "Again, thank you all so much. We will definitely let you know when the wedding is to take place. Perhaps, when you return, you will be able to actually cross a bridge to reach our realm as well."

Glinda bowed respectfully. "May you and your husband rule wise and well, my dear."

A large transport bubble formed around the entire entourage from Oz a few minutes later, when they were all gathered together. The wicked apprentices, and Blinkie herself, were also among them, and they were all being watched by the Good Witch of the North. They were the only ones not waving goodbye as the bubble ascended to the skies and began drifting towards the Emerald City.

* * *

While the returning entourage from Oz was certainly relieved to be out of danger, back to their normal forms in the case of those who had been transformed, and had effectively set things right in more than one land within the Nonestic isles, their elevated spirits were more or less brought back down to earth when they discovered what had happened to Oscar Diggs, who was still encased in his icy prison in Ozma's boudoir. Polychrome explained the situation to Glinda and Locasta as they rushed in to examine what had happened to the Wizard of Oz. On hand as well was Tilda, the only apprentice witch in Blinkie's coven to be convinced to switch sides. She was quick to warn about the danger evident in reading the texts that belonged to the wicked witches.

As all the ancient and mostly wicked-looking texts had been brought to the boudoir, Glinda picked another of the dangerous-looking tomes. Tilda was a little alarmed until she saw the Good Witch of the South wisely encase the book in one of her transport bubbles, lifting it up, and then using her magic to flip through the pages quickly.

When this happened, however, the interior of the bubble suddenly became a blazing inferno, with the book glowing brightly. The bubble held, but it was clear now to Glinda that to open this text invited its curse, and in much the same way Oscar had been frozen solid by the text he obviously tried to read.

Once the inferno died down, the bubble lowered down and popped, dropping the smoking book back on the pile.

Locasta then turned to Tilda. "Do you have _any_ idea where those witches might have gotten these dreadful tomes?"

Tilda shook her head. "All they told us was that we shouldn't touch them."

Glinda nodded in agreement. "Only wicked witches as powerful as Blinkie, and her five coven-sisters, could read from these books. If someone such as myself, Locasta, and obviously Oscar attempted to read them? They would fall victim to the curse they must have placed upon these tomes."

"Glinda, I warned Oscar not to read those books." Tilda remarked. "I _warned_ him."

"You're not gonna punish him for this, are you, Glinda?" Jellia asked. "I mean, even I would have been curious about these books if I were a wizard."

Glinda smiled. "Oh, I don't blame him for being curious, but I'm sure he has learned his lesson in the need to be cautious at the same time." She then looked to her own coven-sister. "Locasta, dear?"

The Good Witch of the North nodded, similarly smiling. "I am ready, sister."

As Tilda and Jellia watched, and as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Ozma, Polychrome, Betsy Bobbin, Nick Chopper, and the Lion also observed, Glinda and Locasta hovered their hands as close as they could to the icy surface of the prison without actually touching it. They then began emitting a two-toned, perfectly-harmonized hum from their closed mouths as their eyelids slowly lowered down.

All who observed…Betsy Bobbin in particular…expected to see the icy shell begin to crack, but they instead saw the thickness of the frigid exterior gradually erode, the magic of the two Good Witches of Oz creating a melting effect without having the enchanted ice shed a single drop of water.

Betsy's eyes widened in her pleasant surprise when she paid witness to what she was the first to see. "He's movin'!" She observed aloud. "He's _movin'!_ "

Once the ice had completely dissolved, his arms began to come down gradually, and his eyes began to blink as the bluish tint to his skin began to fade. He looked a bit damp as he shook his head rapidly, and then brought up his hands to look upon them.

As the book that trapped him in the block of ice was also levitating as it inflicted the curse upon Oscar, the tome dropped to the table below once the ice was gone.

The freed Wizard of Oz then angled his head towards Glinda, and then the group that was behind her. He smiled when he saw the Oklahoma girl he had helped to bring into a traveling circus. "Betsy!"

" _Oscar!_ " She raced forward and wrapped her arms around him as he laughed merrily. The others in the room beamed upon seeing their reunion.

"You had quite an adventure, didn't you, o' Queen of Diamonds?" Oscar asked upon pulling away. "Had a few close calls there, didn't you?"

"I wouldn't have gott'n very far without _your_ help, Mist'r Diggs!" Betsy happily replied. "I would've been lost at sea, or _worse!_ "

"Looks like you've served responsibly, great Oz!" The smiling, tin-plated Emperor of the Winkies remarked. "I knew Oz would be in good hands while we were gone."

As much as Nick meant well with his words, Oscar's expression went serious. "I…wish I could believe that, good Emperor."

Jellia Jamb sighed. She knew why he felt this way. "Oscar…"

"Nooo, no, I'll not have anyone defend my actions, Jellia." Oscar interjected, a sullen look on his old face. "I went and did it again. You warned me not to show off too much with my new magic skills, Glinda, and…" He gestured to the cursed book in front of him. "…well, as you must have seen, I didn't think before I went and touched something I shouldn't have. Thought I was too big for my britches. _Again_. I suppose that makes me a…a wicked _wizard,_ doesn't it?"

"I will _not_ hear you talk that way, apprentice." Glinda calmly, but firmly replied. "Your only failure here was that you did not exercise caution before placing one finger upon this tome."

Oscar then gestured to Tilda. "But she _warned_ me, Glinda!" He whined. He then turned his head to the young apprentice witch. "I should have listened to you."

"But y' _did_ serve well, Mist'r Diggs!" Betsy remarked. "Rememb'r all those people y' help'd on your first day in th' throne room? That…couple who were stuck between wantin' a boy or a girl? Y' don't need t' jus' use magic t' be a good Wiz'rd!"

"She's absolutely right, great Oz!" The Scarecrow added. "Good wizards aren't just defined by magic alone. It could be because they have a strong brain, which I know for sure you have!"

"And a kind heart, as well." Nick offered. "You've definitely shown that more than once. Even outside of Oz. Betsy wouldn't be the heroic winkie citizen she is today without your influence."

"An' if I knows my historanimus right, didn't yas _build_ dis here Em'rald City? Brick fa brick?" The Lion noted. "An' didn't yas chase off dem witch-sistas long ago? I don't tink yas coulda done any a' dat stuff if'n ya didn't have yaself an awful lotta c-hourage!"

"I also sent a young girl to kill a dangerous witch, when I should have tried to do it myself." Oscar lamented. "Or at least marched against that green-skinned old crone with an army behind me."

"You _know_ you would have gotten them all killed, Oscar." Locasta noted. "I might bring up similar laments about what I was doing while we were in our stalemate with the witch-sisters. Hiding out among munchkins, as one of them."

"I…I might have been scared at first, Oscar. When you told me to go and kill that witch." Dorothy remarked. "But I didn't go alone. I had three very powerful friends to help me…and now that I know just how horrible that mean ol' witch was before I came here, I'm actually glad that things worked out the way they did."

Glinda gently put a hand on the old man's shoulder. "Never dwell upon your past regrets, apprentice. Always learn from them. Lessons like those will make you all the stronger as a wizard. You should know, too, that were I to make the same mistake you had made, it would not have mattered how powerful a witch I am. I would still have been encased in a block of ice the same way you had."

"Everyone falls and fails at some point in their lives, Oscar. Sometimes more than once." Ozma offered. "But it's when you pick yourself back up and keep going, all the wiser, that matters more, doesn't it?"

Tilda stepped over to the sullen old man now, her tone entirely sympathetic. "I still wanna be your apprentice, Mister Diggs."

After a moment in which he lingered his gaze upon young Tilda, Oscar finally smiled.

"No matter what you all are. Emperors, farmgirls, mentors, acrobats, advisors…" he then gestured to Ozma. "…the ruler of an entire country. None of that means anything to me right now when I say you're the best friends a daffy ol' wizard like me could ever have."

Dorothy beamed at this. "You'll always be the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to me."

"Dat makes two of us! _Rruff!_ " The Lion barked.

"Three of us!" The Scarecrow added.

"Four!" Nick remarked in agreement.

"Five!" Betsy called out.

Ozma giggled. "It's a foregone conclusion that Dorothy speaks for all of us here."

Oscar nodded. "Lesson learned then." The Wizard of Oz then rose from his seat. "And now, if you'll all pardon me, I will need to, uh…teach my new apprentice how to get the dampness out of my clothes." He then wrapped an arm around his eager young apprentice as they left. "It's actually quite a simple bit of prestidigitation, in fact…but it will require a very particular degree of concentration…"

Jellia giggled when they were out of earshot. "There he goes, showing off again."

"Seems kinda odd." Betsy wondered aloud. "I mean, y' keep callin' Oscar an apprentice, but…for him t' do what he did for me from far away…"

"He was using the crystal ball in your palace, Glinda, when he helped Betsy survive a sea voyage." Jellia explained to the surprised Good Witch of the South.

"We fought pirates, too!" Betsy added.

"Well, if you can all keep a very closely-guarded secret, I should tell you that I was able to teach Oscar quite a lot about magic within a short period of time." Glinda admitted. "All I needed to do was to bring Oscar with me to an environment where time flows differently than it does in this dimension. A place where the passage of time is slower than it is here in Oz. So I should like to keep it between us all here when I tell you that Oscar is a much stronger wizard than I would want most to believe, even though he still, ironically, has a lot to learn."

"Just like we need to learn a few things from Blinkie." Dorothy remarked.

"Indeed." Glinda responded, turning to Ozma. "And on that note, I do believe there is the matter of a certain wedding that requires addressing, your majesty. Between two exceptionally brave munchkins."

Ozma nodded. "Boq and Jinjur. I'll get right on it."

"Yup, an' I gots ta gets a dee-breefy from dose furry mugs in my Legion." The Lion added, already heading towards the boudoir's exit as he directed his last statement to Ozma. "I'll get wit'cha layta 'bout security fer dat weddin', ya highness."

Nick moved close to the Oklahoma girl who was also a winkie country citizen. "Are you ready to return to the tin palace with me, Betsy? I wanna hear all about the adventures you had while I was, uh…neutralized. There's also another very important matter I wanted to bring up with you which Nimmie and I had talked about."

"Sounds good t' me, my Emp'ror." Betsy waved to the others, smiling. "I'll see y'all soon!"

As Betsy and Nick made their way out of the boudoir, Omby Amby stepped in as the pair of winkies stepped out. He snapped to attention in front of Ozma. "Begging your pardon, your highness…there is a young girl and a seaman with a wooden leg desiring an audience with you downstairs in the throne room."

"Ah, yes. Mayre Griffiths and Bill Weedles." She began her own trek out of her boudoir.

"Uh, your highness…" Dorothy's voice stopped Ozma in her tracks, and she turned to the Kansas girl curiously. "…Mayre calls herself 'Trot'."

Ozma shrugged, smiling. "I know." With a wink, she and Omby stepped out and made their way downstairs.

"And now, I must be off." Locasta noted. "I have apprentices to shake an authoritative fist at. Wickedness tends to be a bit easier to shake off when you're an apprentice."

"Just be sure to remind them that those witches under Blinkie were never going to complete their training." Dorothy noted. "They were just a means to their own ends. They were…expendable."

Locasta nodded. "That could be extremely helpful, my dear. I will remember that."

Spinning around in place, with her large silver staff in her hand, Locasta glowed with a golden light before evaporating. Not a trace of her remained, leaving only Glinda and Dorothy in the boudoir.

Glinda turned to the cursed tomes, and waved a wand she pulled out from her red robes. Passing twinkling circles around them, they also dissolved from sight. Not one of the spellbooks remained in Ozma's boudoir.

She then turned to Dorothy, smiling. "And then, there were two."

Dorothy smiled back. "The Good Witch of the South…"

"…and her honorary handmaiden." Glinda gestured to Dorothy. "Are you ready to return to my palace with me? I would like to look into what seems to be a lingering enchantment that was placed upon you."

The Kansas girl lowered her head in her recollection as Glinda gently placed an arm around her shoulders. "Blinkie tried to make me her pet. She…she turned me into a _dog,_ Glinda. The only reason I don't look like that now is because those nice wizards from Ev changed us back."

Glinda gently nodded in understanding. "I'm certain little Toto would have found that particularly alarming. How long were you under their spell?"

"Well…there was a time when I-I couldn't tell how much time had passed. That was all a blur to me." Dorothy replied, raising her head up. "But then, the Scarecrow and the Lion, and the Lion's companions with the Legion of Courage managed to get me away from them. They couldn't break my transformation, so I…I had to spend a lot of time as a…as a dog."

Glinda nodded again. "It must have been harrowing for you."

"Well…to be honest, Glinda, I…can't say it was _all_ bad. I mean…I had the Lion and his Legion friends with me." Dorothy noted. "The Lion was a good teacher, too. If it wasn't possible to free you and the others, I probably would have joined the Lion as a full-time member of the Legion…and to be honest, Glinda, I still don't think that would have been so bad."

"You're already an honorary member though, as I recall." Glinda reasoned. "You don't need fur on your skin to hold that important distinction."

Dorothy nodded. "I know. I guess…a part of me misses it all. I know you don't like seeing people transformed, but…"

"We can talk more about this when we reach the palace, dear." Glinda interjected, already forming a transport bubble around them both. The bubble began floating gradually out through the balcony, picking up a bit of speed as it moved away from the Emerald City's royal palace.

* * *

Once Ozma was settled back in her throne room seat, she nodded to Omby Amby. "Go ahead, Private. I'm ready for them."

The stoic soldier nodded once and then opened the throne room doors to allow for Mayre "Trot" Griffiths and Captain Bill Weedles to step in. They both looked around with wide eyes, clearly in awe of their surroundings.

When they stopped in front of the princess, Bill pulled his Captain's cap off and lowered his head, while Trot gave a respectful curtsey gesture.

"Greetings, Trot. And to you, Captain Weedles." Ozma began, smiling. She then looked right at Trot. "After everything I've learned about what you went through while we were held to our stone prisons, let me first tell you how deeply appreciative we are of your efforts to help my friends to undo the act that you were deceived into carrying out. I realize you were not exactly yourself, but even though your body was less than human, everything else about you certainly shined through that wicked enchantment."

Bill frowned at this, looking surprised. "Less than human?" He turned to the little girl next to him. "What's she talking about, Trot?"

Trot sighed. "Those wicked witches turned me into a monkey. I made a really good friend, though…a baboon with wings…"

Ozma's eyes widened. She knew there was only one such creature within her domain. "Koup? Of the Legion of Courage?" She interjected. Ozma then thoughtfully rubbed at her chin. "Very interesting."

Trot nodded before continuing. "Uh huh…and he helped me a lot. I mean, I've never been a monkey before, and I needed someone to show me how. It wasn't all that bad, either. You should've seen me beat away all those nomes!" She flailed out her arms, recreating how she fought them. "BAM! BAM! They went flying _everywhere!_ "

Ozma pleasantly smiled watching this cute emulation. "Yes! I heard it was quite an adventure!" The fairy ruler's face then went neutral in its expression. "But now that it's all over, we need to turn our attention to a more serious matter."

Trot frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Your parents must be very worried about you, Trot." Ozma answered. "Don't you want to go back home?"

A look of uncertainty was now on the California girl's face when she heard this. She did not immediately answer.

"I can send you home quite easily." Ozma noted. "We can do it right now, if you like. You and your friend Bill. You'll both be home, safe and sound."

"How am I gonna explain where I was, though? I mean…it must have been _days._ " Trot finally reasoned. "They probably think me and Cap'n Bill are long gone. Don't you think people where I come from are gonna ask a lot of questions if I just suddenly show up, safe and sound? I can't just tell them I was at a place where there was magic, witches, dragons…a place where I get turned into a monkey, and Cap'n Bill is turned into a bug…no one's ever gonna believe us!"

Bill nodded as Trot gave her explanation. He then glanced to Ozma. "She's got a point, your majesty. To have to live with that knowledge without ever being able to tell anyone would be a pretty tough thing to deal with."

"Besides…I wanna know _everything_ about this place!" Trot sounded a bit excited as she spoke. "I know there are dragons and witches and stuff, but this is a _beautiful_ land! Everything I went through…it was all so _exciting,_ too! I wanna see _more_ of it!"

Ozma thoughtfully nodded, considering a possible avenue of responsibility for this clearly eager young girl and her sailor friend. There was also the fact that clearly, Trot had been touched by a fairy at the time of her birth, and perhaps Bill as well. Otherwise, they would never have wound up in the land of Oz at all, or any of the surrounding nonestic lands for that matter. Letting her go might very well make her feel sullen and alone after everything she had experienced.

The fairy princess therefore resolved, to herself, to alleviate any notion of worry in the minds of Trot's parents by using the powerful mystical artifact Dorothy brought to her following their return from Jinxland…the Magic Belt, as she called it…to make a properly-worded wish.

But there was one other person she needed to hear from first. Ozma's eyes turned to the peg-legged seaman. "Do you share her desire to remain in Oz, Captain?"

Bill smiled. "Trot risked a _lot_ to try and find me, your highness. I owe her my life. Wherever she goes, I'm gonna want to go. Even if it means spending the rest of my retirement here in this land of yours."

Ozma nodded, smiling back. "You both bring up good reasons for wanting to remain, and I might add that it may not necessarily have been a matter of chance that you found our lands. It is more like…fate, and that's something I don't expect either of you to understand right away." Her eyes then centered on Trot's. "Your efforts to save not only Bill, but my friends and I shows that you have a very selfless and caring nature. These are things we hold in very high regard here in Oz. Although you should now be advised that while you are in our lands, you will never grow older, and you will never die, nor will you suffer any of the diseases that plague your own lands."

This last bit surprised Trot. "So…I'll always be a kid?"

Ozma giggled at this as she nodded. "Unless, of course, you actually wish to grow older, in which case you will slowly advance in your age until you are that which you wish to be."

"Wow!" Bill's eyes widened in his amazement. His expression then became a little inquisitive. "But…we can't go…the _other_ way, can we? I mean, older people becoming younger?"

Ozma giggled again in her amusement. "I'm afraid not, my dear Captain. Only very powerful magic could do that."

Trot also had a related inquiry. "So…if I wanted to be ten years older, that would happen, like, the next day?"

"Oh no. It's not that radical of an advancement." Ozma answered. "If you really had a desire to grow older, then you would begin to age as you would outside of the nonestic lands. You would only stop aging when you reached the age that you had wanted to be. But as I said to Bill, it cannot be reversed."

Trot nodded. "I understand. I kinda like being a kid anyway."

"And for your services to me and my friends, I will have two of our suites here in the royal palace reserved for your use for as long as you wish." Ozma added, smiling. "After all…you're going to need a place to live in, right?"

Bill now looked skeptical. " _Two suites?_ Wow…that seems awfully extravagant of you, your highness. I mean…how are we gonna pay for that?"

"By not paying anything at all." Ozma replied, signalling for Jellia Jamb, who was nearby. "Monetary systems in Oz were attempted, but they were subsequently abolished for the troubles they caused us. Those suites are yours to keep, to do with as you will, until you choose to let them go."

" _Woooow._ " Trot's eyes boggled. "We're _both_ getting suites!"

"Each door facing the other." Ozma added, smiling. "You'll practically be neighbors."

Jellia placed a hand on Trot's shoulder. "Would you like to see your suites now?"

"Yeah! C'mon, Cap'n Bill! Let's go exploring!" Trot excitedly exclaimed.

Jellia directed the two new residents of Oz to follow her as they made their way to the stairs leading up to the many suites of the Emerald City's royal palace. Ozma's eyes followed them as they went until they disappeared from sight.

A moment later, Omby Amby stepped in from outside the throne room. "Your majesty…Mayor Boq of Munchkinland and his fiance', Jinjur, are outside. Shall I let them in?"

The ruler of Oz nodded. "Please do so, Omby. Thank you."

Ozma settled more comfortably in her throne seat as she waited, content that all was well, once again, in the land of Oz.

At least, for the moment.

* * *

Nimmie had asked that she separate into a bubble of her own in the journey back to the Emerald City, with Glinda acknowledging her request. She wanted to assure the winkies that they still had an Emperor, given the time they had been away. The former munchkin woman was unaware of what happened to Oscar Diggs in their absence, although this was of little concern given his subsequent freedom.

The Empress was later joined by her husband and by Betsy Bobbin, who was now wearing another beautiful yellow winkie dress. She smiled wide upon seeing Nimmie waiting for them both, and when she stood before her, she curtseyed low in her willing display of respect and fealty.

"Looks like the Winkie Country has its own champion now, eh?" Nick observed, stepping next to his wife.

"I think so. Brave, smart, resourceful…you represented your country with distinction, Betsy Bobbin." Nimmie added. "We're honored to be able to call you one of us."

"Aw, shucks." Betsy responded, feeling a little bashful. "I jus' did what I thought was right."

"And demonstrated good judgment in so doing." Nimmie noted. "Which made your emperor and I wonder if you should be…a little more than just a champion of the winkies."

Betsy frowned, tilting her head. "What do y' mean?"

"Well, Nimmie wondered if you might be interested, perhaps, in an honorific title?" Nick suggested. "Perhaps… _Princess_ Betsy Bobbin?"

The Oklahoma girl's eyes widened in her surprise. "A Princess? _Me?_ "

Nimmie shrugged, smiling. "You're already the Queen of Diamonds, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but…that's an _act,_ my empress." Betsy looked a little overwhelmed by their suggestion. "But…bein' a real _princess?_ That's…kind of a big deal, isn't it?"

"We don't have to ordain it right away, Betsy." Nick assured. "It's just something to think about is all, but you should know that Nimmie and I already believe you to be more than qualified to hold the title, given your incredible accomplishments thus far."

Betsy nodded, after a long moment of thought. "Yeah, I…I wanna think about that first, if…that's OK."

"Absolutely, Betsy." Nick gently placed a hand on the young girl's shoulder. "Take as much time as you need. If you decide against it, we won't think any differently of you."

Betsy beamed, curtseying low once again. "Thank you, my emp'ror."

"For the moment," Nimmie remarked. "I seem to recall wanting to talk with you about starting an annual circus event here in the Winkie Country…"

* * *

The formidable-looking, yet beautiful female guards keeping their vigil over Glinda's Palace respectfully bowed unto Glinda the Good as the red-haired sorceress approached the front doors of the large building, Dorothy Gale following close behind her.

It seemed like every time Dorothy entered the palace of the Good Witch of the South, something about it always had her gazing in awe. She never stopped moving, however, as Glinda continued her progress through the palace's beautifully-carpeted halls.

Along one hallway was a succession of doors, and one door in particular was flanked by another pair of female guards. It was in front of this door that Glinda finally stopped. Across from this door was another, unguarded door, and it was this one that the red-robed sorceress opened first.

She then looked to Dorothy. "I need you to wait in here, Dorothy dear. I do not want you to be in the same room with me and Blinkie. This might take a while, so do make yourself comfortable. Feel free to avail yourself to this room's…diversions. In fact, I do encourage it."

Dorothy took a look inside the room. It was quite large, and just as Glinda had indicated, there were several implements and instruments with which the Kansas girl could pass some time. Among the many different diversions were musical instruments, knitting yarn, a basket full of clothing near a clothesline, a Victrola-style record player, and a very comfortable-looking divan, no doubt provided if all the room's occupant wanted to do was to take a nap.

Dorothy frowned in her curiosity. "What is this place?"

Glinda smiled as she stood behind her, speaking gently into the Kansas girl's ear. "This is one of many rooms in the palace where my handmaidens practice their skills, or where freshly-chosen females train to become my handmaidens. If you should decide to play any music, play it as loud as you wish. An enchantment has been placed upon the room. No one outside can hear what goes on in here. If you wish a bit of training with anything you see here, knock twice on the door, and I'll have one of the guards send for one of my other handmaidens."

Dorothy nodded, looking down at the simple gray dress she was given when her humanity was restored. "Sorry I didn't dress in something a little less…frumpy."

Glinda raised her glowing hands above her curious guest. "Easily rectified. Just hold still."

Dorothy's hair was now becoming soft, luxurious waves and curls of lovely red magnificence as Glinda's hands slowly lowered to the ground on either side of her body. As they proceeded their slow progress to the ground, the gray dress blossomed to become an even more beautiful red gown. In every way, she looked like a veritable princess. The fairest of maidens in red. Hardly a simple farmgirl from Kansas anymore. The pleasant makeup that now adorned her face added to the overall allure of her appearance. As much as Glinda had applied a similar look to her once before, this one looked even better than that earlier incarnation.

Looking down at herself, she was speechless. All that came out of her mouth, after a long moment spent gazing in awe, was one word. "Wow…"

She heard Glinda whisper behind her as the smiling, red-robed sorceress began pulling the door to the room shut. "Enjoy."

Once the door was shut, Glinda's expression became a bit more serious as she opened the door that the guards were flanking and slowly stepped inside.

Within the smaller, empty(save for a single divan), and less inviting-looking room was a single individual, who had been placed there to await Glinda's arrival. She had one good eye, wore faded red robes, and she was about the same height as Glinda's knee, having been shrunk…and at the same time, de-powered…by a crafty Scarecrow.

"Good afternoon, Blinkie." Glinda calmly began, slowly approaching the powerless witch. "I see you've been quite busy since last we saw each other. Made a few new friends, have you?"

"Friends who understood me a lot better than you ever could, _Glinda._ " The eyepatch-wearing crone spoke the name in disgust as she looked up to her.

"Made things easier for you, no doubt." Glinda observed as she paced around the smaller woman. "Gave you power, at the cost of whatever moral fiber you might have been capable of demonstrating."

"It was that 'moral fiber' of yours that _held me back!_ " Blinkie growled. "And _you_ came to _me,_ Glinda. You were looking for someone to help break the stalemate. Made me your 'honorary handmaiden'. Had me knitting dresses and playing a harp. You even made me look _beautiful._ Your own maddening vision of a sugary sweet maiden in red."

For Blinkie to make such an observation stung the Good Witch of the South, considering how she had diverted Dorothy from this interrogation. She tried not to let it affect her words, though. "And you responded with impatience. You were impulsive. Far too impulsive. I'm not surprised you abandoned me. I did indeed come to you, as well. I will not deny this. I will even admit to desperation. I did not want to see the munchkins and the winkies suffer any more than they already had. You had a great deal of promise, Blinkie. To this day, I can't help but wonder how you could have benefited the people of Oz as a good witch."

"Have you found any replacements?" Blinkie wondered aloud, with a contemptuous tone. "Do you have any new 'honorary handmaidens'? Perhaps you've taken in the one who _melted_ the witch who _did_ train me in the 'craft? That brat from Kansas, who I turned into my furry pet for a time? You think _she_ could be the 'good witch' you expected me to become?"

"Dorothy has no interest in becoming any kind of a spellcaster, Blinkie." Glinda countered. "She is…admirably humble."

Blinkie giggled wickedly at this. "She certainly seemed to enjoy being my dog."

Glinda angrily threw an open hand out towards the one-eyed crone, and the smaller witch's joints froze as her body floated up in front of her.

The Good Witch of the South then fixed a stern and intimidating gaze upon the one-eyed witch. "How did you lay your mark so deeply upon her?"

Despite her incapacitation, Blinkie still grinned defiantly as she spoke. "You're not the only one to make use of a pocket dimension where you can conveneintly train a charlatan wizard in a short period of time, Glinda. I, too, had access to that dimension…and if the flow of time slows down there, compared to the way it flows here in Oz, you can imagine how much time I spent developing and nurturing Dorothy while she was nothing more than an obedient animal. So yes, Glinda. My influence on that wretched girl will _always_ run _very_ deep within her for as long as she lives!"

Glinda sighed, closing her eyes regretfully as she lowered her head. "You're just proving yourself to be just as bad as _she_ was for you to punish poor Dorothy like this." She raised her head back up, once again fixing an angry stare upon Blinkie. "Is that what you want? To be a _monster,_ no different from the witch-sisters?"

Blinkie grinned, glaring back at the red-robed sorceress. "What are you going to do about it, Glinda? What will you do with me, hmm? _Kill_ me? Make me sip from the Water of Oblivion, so I can forget everything I was? Everything I _am?_ Or perhaps you want to drop a house down on me? Or _MELT me?_ "

Glinda calmly closed her eyes as Blinkie hatefully growled, deflecting the attempts to stir the red-haired spellcaster's anger. As much as she didn't want to do what she finally resolved to do to deal with Blinkie, it was at least something that the powerless witch was not asking for in her rant. She would still be alive, too.

But she would also be damned, as well.

Glinda waited until Blinkie was quiet before re-opening her eyes. "There is a way you can start over." She raised her hands up high, and they began to glow. Beneath Blinkie, a large blue circle around her also began glowing. "But you won't be resuming it anywhere near the nonestic isles."

It took a moment for Blinkie to comprehend, and then her only good eye widened in horror. "Wait…wait, _no!_ Y-you ca…"

But it was done. The glow enveloped the one-eyed crone completely, swallowing her in a large mote of energy which, at the same time, manifested in a cold place filled with snow, relocating Blinkie to where Glinda effectively transported her to.

A place where she would be unable to comprehend anyone who spoke to her.

A place that had no magic, and no one capable of using it.

A place russians called Siberia.

* * *

All Dorothy Gale really wanted to do in the really nice-looking room she had been staying in during the interrogation was to pull one of the large harps over to the divan, lay across it comfortably, and then idly strum upon some of the strings of the harp, lost in thought over everything that had happened since the wedding between Nick and Nimmie.

Glancing at her hand, she loved how her fingernails looked in the magical makeover Glinda had given her, and she then touched at the soft red curls of her beautifully re-shaped and re-colored hair. The gown she wore wrapped around her as if they were the petals of a lovely flower, the rose red fabrics fashionably arranged to make her look particularly stunning.

Rising to her feet, and walking on soft, comfortable sandals with thin, glittery silver straps that criss-crossed up her lower thigh to a point just under her knees, she stepped over to a large mirror in the room, where she was able to see herself from head to toe.

She looked entirely glamorous as she stared upon herself. Like the fair maidens of the stories her Aunt Em read to her when she was much younger. Although she wondered how those stories would be different if the roles were reversed…if the fair maiden were called upon to rescue the handsome prince…she still enjoyed those stories anyway.

And she was _loving_ this look Glinda had given to her. She felt so much like a real princess, even if she was just a farmgirl.

As her gaze lingered upon her own reflection, she heard the door to the room open up once more, and she turned her smiling head to Glinda as the red-haired sorceress walked in with a strangely sullen look upon her face.

As Dorothy slowly approached her, her expression went serious. "Glinda? What's wrong?" The Kansas farmgirl asked.

It took a moment for the Good Witch of the South to speak, but she finally broke the silence. "I'm going to need a little more…time…to look into your lingering enchantment, Dorothy. I-I'm sorry."

Dorothy nodded. "It's only one word, anyway. I…feel fine, otherwise." Standing right in front of the red-robed sorceress, she gently placed her hands at her arms. "Glinda, what is it? Is there…is there anything your honorary handmaiden can do for you?"

"Dorothy, I…" Glinda stopped herself from what would have been an irritated retort. She closed her eyes, clearly troubled after the conversation she had with Blinkie. It obviously exacerbated things to hear Dorothy refer to herself as an honorary handmaiden.

When her eyes opened back up, her voice was a little more calm, and she placed a hand against the curious Kansas girl's cheek. "…forgive me." She softly remarked. Her next inquiry was a little more thoughtful. "You really wouldn't mind being one of my handmaidens, would you?"

"Well, if it…meant…looking this _beautiful…_ " She indicated her current appearance. "…I'd certainly consider it."

Glinda smiled once again, and then her arms wrapped around Dorothy in a gentle hug. She reciprocated with her own arms, and they remained like this for a fairly long moment.

"My dear Kansas girl." Glinda whispered as she held her. "If only you were truly my child."

When Dorothy slowly pulled her head away, she angled her head up to the taller woman, looking affectionately into her eyes. "Please…is there anything I can do for you, milady Glinda?" She softly asked again.

The red-robed sorceress ultimately cast aside the past regrets relating to Blinkie. Those regrets had compelled her to dismiss Dorothy, but she framed her head with both of her soft, slender hands instead as she smiled down at her, as if she truly were a loving mother.

"Stay with me?" Glinda then asked, her tone gentle. "Just for a little while."

Dorothy smiled, her own voice just as soft. "I'll stay as long as you want me to, milady Glinda."

They remained close to each other as they left the room, going from the halls of the palace to the large and beautiful courtyard, where they both spent the rest of the day together quite contentedly. Their activites were pleasant ones, and their conversations were quite lively, particularly when the Kansas girl shared many of the details of her adventures in Jinxland with the Good Witch of the South.

Dorothy remained with Glinda well into the night, and chose to sleep at her palace when she grew tired. The next day, however, the red-robed sorceress needed to release her honorary handmaiden once again, as she had wanted to assist in the arrangements being made for the forthcoming wedding.

Strangely, however, Glinda restored the Kansas girl's gingham-dress appearance, pigtails and all, before Dorothy left, despite Dorothy's frequent appraisals of the handmaiden appearance she had been temporarily given.

For the moment, she set such concerns aside as she returned to her suite in the royal palace.

For once, she wanted to be able to take some time to rest in her own home.


	16. EPILOGUE?

**EPILOGUE?**

"Do you, Boq, Mayor of Munchkinland, take this woman to be your lawfully-wedded wife?" A smiling Locasta asked as he looked at the portly munchkin with the gentleman's mustache. "To love, honor, and cherish, from this day forward, for better or for worse, forsaking all others, unto the end of time?"

Boq took a moment to glance at Dorothy Gale, who had been chosen by Jinjur to be the maid of honor. He wondered what his life would have been like if he were able to convince Dorothy to marry him…as he had once wanted to during her time spent as one of the munchkins…as the sweetly-dressed Kansas girl smiled back at him.

But then, the Mayor's eyes returned to Jinjur. She looked more beautiful than she had ever been in this moment, and the memories of their tireless efforts to counteract the morale-crushing tyranny of the Wicked Witch of the East made the conviction in his reply all the more evident. "I most assuredly do, with all my heart."

A loud, but brief gasp from the Lion, who was once again struggling to keep his overwhelming emotions from sabotaging the ceremony, could be heard as the Hungry Tiger, who was standing next to him as always, gave his king a nudge and then handed a handkerchief to the happily-weeping leonine monarch while keeping his eyes upon the bride and groom, and keeping a straight face.

Locasta turned her head to the smiling bride. "Do you, Jinjur, take this man to be your lawfully-wedded husband? To love, honor, and cherish, from this day forward, for better or for worse, forsaking all others, unto the end of time?"

Jinjur was already looking forward to the challenges evident in living life as a married woman. It was as if she and Boq were still in hiding all over again, keeping morale among the munchkins high even as the Wicked Witch of the East frequently demonstrated new ways to significantly lower it.

Although she had always known Boq to be a perfect gentleman by nature, she would always be ready to remind the Mayor of the necessity of equality in their union.

Even if it meant putting her foot down, painfully, on his. "I will."

"Then, by virtue of the authority bestowed unto me by, uh, _you,_ Mayor Boq…" Locasta proclaimed, provoking a few amused giggles in so doing. "…I now pronounce you husband and wife."

Once Boq and Jinjur lovingly pressed their lips together, there were loud outbursts of joy from the _huge_ crowds of invited guests and onlookers, a majority of whom were munchkins. The Scarecrow cheered. Emperor Nicholas Chopper, Empress Nimmie Amee, and Captain Fyter rose up from their chairs in unison to applaud the happy union. The patchwork girl, Scraps, and Jack Pumpkinhead…who was standing next to her…cried out in their glee. Ozma and Glinda, who also stood together, applauded the new couple. Betsy Bobbin and Hank. Trot and Bill Weedles. The Shaggy Man, his brother, and the former fairy called Ozga. Polychrome. Philomena H. Dee. Professor Wogglebug. Cayke the Cookie Cook. Jellia Jamb. These and so many more cheered loudly and happily for Boq and Jinjur.

The munchkin guilds were then given space to make presentations as per Glinda's arrangements, the crowds forming a circle so the first of them…the Lollipop Guild, led by Guild Master Ojo the Lucky…could strut, hop, and spin out to the center in demonstration of their jazzy dance moves. This was followed by a more lyrical presentation in which the Lollipops were joined by the Lullaby League in a dazzling display of unified and perfectly harmonized singing and dancing.

The armies of all four lands in Oz…the Gillikin Country's Purple Heart Patrol, commanded by Captain Fyter, Major Stalwart's armored winkie soldiers of the Shining Battalion, General Arlee Armey's Munchkin Regiments, and Commander Practiss of the Quadling Country's Rainbow Dragoons…followed with a display of precision marching and cadence in honor of former Master General Commander Jinjur, who was particularly proud of the performances of Armey and his regiments.

The Wizard of Oz himself staged a performance, this one more spectacular than any he had done before for all of the amazing feats of magic he had learned under Glinda's tutelage, and with an assist by not only Betsy Bobbin…once again clad as the ever-sparkling Queen of Diamonds…but from his new apprentice, Tilda, as well.

And throughout it all, the Lion could hardly keep from bawling his eyes out in his amusing display of over-emotional joy. Fortunately, the Hungry Tiger was always there to hand over the handkerchief, which was becoming quite wet from his king's happy tears.

During the wedding reception, Ozma's table was loaded with all the notable heroes and dignitaries of the land of Oz. Dorothy Gale. The Scarecrow. Glinda. Locasta. Professor Wogglebug. Nick and Nimmie. The Lion. The Hungry Tiger. Betsy Bobbin. Trot joined the group on the caveat that Bill be permitted to sit with them as well, which was fine by the fairy ruler. Captain Fyter had been invited to join as well, but he chose to sit with his soldiers instead.

As the table was separated from most of the others, the Scarecrow figured this was as good a time as any to bring up a line of inquiry he had put off until the Good Witch of the South was freed. "Glinda…I had meant to ask you about a little matter which is…a bit unpleasant to bring up regarding the current Regent of the land of Ev. A woman who apparently has the ability to change her…"

"Oh, you must mean Langwidere." Glinda interjected, nodding in acknowledgement. "Yes…hers is a particularly sad story. During the tyranny of the wicked witch-sisters, they had an ally in Ev who was a part of their own wicked coven. While she was not as powerful as the witch-sisters themselves, she was nevertheless a very vile and deceptive young woman who knew much of how to use her witchcraft to achieve dreadful ends. Her name was Evenge."

"Evenge? Dear me. That particular identity has manifested in many a recent historical text of the domain called Ev." Professor Wogglebug thoughtfully remarked, remembering the words of one such text describing her. "'…and framing those vibrant, golden locks was a gaze most fierce and intimidating. To know what terrible thoughts and initiatives and ambitions persisted behind those penetrating eyes was to acknowledge the worst parts of any nightmare suffered by moral men, women, and even children, the latter of which were similarly singled out as a means to a horrible end.' Or so volume seventeen of Mandevar's Memoirs of Ev had so vividly illustrated."

"What happened to her?" Trot asked. "She isn't still around, is she?"

"No, thank goodness." Glinda replied. "The only wizard in Ev who could stand against her, whose own magic powers barely equaled her own, was Everitas the Sage. He could not defeat her by himself, however, and not just because she was made Court Magician to the tyrant king, Evoldo. The only way she could be destroyed was for not one, but _four_ powerful wizards…one for each element of nature…to confront and challenge her. Everitas needed to find his three potentials not only in different lands from around the earth, but from different periods of _time_ as well. Spellcasters from the past, the present, and even one from the future."

"Who jus' happen'd t' be those four wiz'rds we met in Ev, right?" Betsy asked.

Glinda nodded. "The very same."

"Do you know which one was from the future?" Oscar Diggs asked.

"I believe that would be the one from…Chicago, I think. Yes, Neville. That's him. Neville Evince." Glinda answered. "He engineered a rather crafty deception of his own, and he was able to set a trap for Evenge. I believe the battle was…quite spectacular. As Evenge sought to command the four elements…earth, wind, fire, and water…to her whims, the four wizards of Ev convinced the land to turn against _her…_ and if you thought seeing a witch melt away was dreadful, believe me…Evenge's fate was far more terrifying to behold, but it was a proper fate for one who only truly cared for one person, and one person alone. Herself."

"Not just wicked, but selfish, eh? I'm not surprised those witch-sisters would want her for an ally." Nick Chopper observed.

"Heh. Bats of a leather." The Lion observed. "Good on dose wizards dat dey took 'er out."

The Scarecrow nodded. "Agreed. So it was because of Evenge that Langwidere is the way she is now?"

"More or less. Of all the voices of Ev's governing bodies, none of them were as loud as Langwidere. On more than one occasion, she attempted to convince Evoldo to build an army, and establish a mutual protection policy with Queen Zixi of the Kingdom of Ix, who fielded an army of soldiers with enchanted armor and weaponry. Langwidere figured that the fact that she was Evoldo's niece might make it easier for her to convince him. But the king was paranoid over the likelihood of Zixi making unreasonable demands in exchange for the assistance of her armies, so Evoldo always refused the princess."

"Hmmm. Do you know anything about Zixi?" Nimmie asked.

"Well, I know that if Evoldo did appeal to Zixi, it would have been futile." Glinda responded. "But it would not have been because Zixi herself was bad. She didn't like, nor would she ever trust, a man like Evoldo."

"Seein' as how he was rotten enough ta give up his wife an' kids ta dat Nome King, I'm not surprised." The Lion observed.

"Zixi herself is actually quite the opposite of Evoldo." Glinda added. "A well-respected ruler who, to this day, remains a fair and just monarch."

"But how did Evenge deal with Langwidere?" The Hungry Tiger asked, in between bites of the raw meat in front of him.

"I would think she appealed to the one thing that more or less defined Langwidere." The Scarecrow surmised aloud. "Her vanity."

"Precisely." Glinda answered. "She also had a great love and respect for many in the land of Ev. Females, especially. The witch used that particular preference against her. Quite literally, in fact. You see…Langwidere was _not_ the one who removed the heads of her many female supporters, as you might have thought when you met her. That was the work of Evenge. Although I should mention that part of the reason Langwidere enjoyed the company of females was that in many cases, she wanted to be just as beautiful as they were. Their hairstyles, their faces, everything. It never drove her mad, though."

Ozma nodded in understanding. "And then, Evenge showed up."

"Who gloated quite mercilessly when she cursed Langwidere." Glinda added. "This in retaliation for daring to question Evenge over the unexplained disappearances of all those women. Evenge had Langwidere hold her own head as she shared that terrifying revelation. It was when she showed off all those heads that the sanity of the princess finally snapped."

"Is there any way we could help her, Glinda?" Trot asked.

"That is a matter for the Queen of Ev to decide." Glinda replied. "At the moment, they are likely consolidating the rule of the land's new King, Evardo the fifteenth, with the aid of the wondrous wizards of Ev."

"Do you think he'll be a better king than his father was, Glinda?" Dorothy asked.

"Oh, I imagine he will be, Dorothy dear." The red-robed sorceress answered. "Particularly if he has his own mother advising him."

Captain Weedles rose up out of his seat, hoisting the glass of lacasa he had been drinking aloft. "To the new King of Ev."

Those who had glasses of the tasty, tangy lacasa beverage rose up from their seats to do the same, while those who had no need for food and drink respectfully rose up anyway.

They all spoke in unison, and with spirited voices. "TO THE NEW KING OF EV!"

* * *

 **The following day…**

Betsy Bobbin decided to venture a good distance from the Tin Palace, using one of the many taxis pulled by the renowned Horses of a Different Color. When Betsy boarded the taxi carriage, the horse was blue. When it arrived at her destination, the horse was pink.

The Oklahoma girl wandered the beautiful woodlands of the Gillikin Country looking for a certain other simian friend of hers. A boy who had found happiness with a sorcerous giantess.

The catch was that he had to become her green monkey through Mrs. Yoop's considerably powerful transformation magic.

Betsy searched the woodlands for a fairly long time. She figured that at some point, Woot would show himself.

But he didn't.

The talented Oklahoma girl tried a few acrobatic maneuvers, hoping to attract the green monkey's attention somehow. She even went in close vicinity to Yoop Castle in her search, even though she had been warned by Mrs. Yoop herself to stay away from that place.

But while Betsy's search for Woot ultimately proved fruitless…

…Mrs. Yoop, on the other hand, was easily able to find Betsy.

And the giantess did _not_ look happy as she approached her.

* * *

It was inevitable that the old vagabond known only as the Shaggy Man would be brought before the princess Ozma, who noted that Private Omby Amby was not as stoic when he announced him. Jellia also seemed to take kindly to him, practically being a bit of a pest in making sure he was well fed and didn't need a drink.

Ozma had to giggle, realizing why. It was at the wedding reception, after all, that she had learned about it from Glinda.

The old man himself bowed respectfully low in presenting himself before the fairy ruler of Oz. "May I first say how undisputably lovely you look, your highness. Truly, your radiant benevolence can be felt in every room you inhabit."

Ozma giggled again, feeling entirely charmed by the vagabond. "And your inescapable sense of humility precedes you, sir. From what I understand, you come from a place called…Butterfield?"

The Shaggy Man nodded. "Not a place I would be willing to return to, either. I refuse to settle that debt."

Ozma frowned in her confusion. "Debt?"

"Yes. There is a Butterfield man who insists on paying me back the twelve cents I loaned him." The old man explained. "I made it quite clear to him, on more than one occasion, that he need not bother. If only to keep that stubborn man from settling the debt, might I appeal to you on the notion of remaining here in your land?"

Ozma had already made up her mind, seeing as how she very much admired this man's sense of selflessness. Particularly the Shaggy Man, as he was a man most in his world would deem visibly undesirable. A hobo. A recluse. His values would be lost on people who only accepted someone on the basis of having a clean or otherwise pleasant appearance. That was why she couldn't help but deem him lucky for the powerful trinket he had on his person.

But Ozma decided to play against her own curiosity in her reply. "If you wish to remain a resident of Oz, there is only one thing I would ask of you in return."

The Shaggy Man's head tilted to the side curiously. "Yes?"

Ozma leaned forward in her throne seat, still smiling. "Let's see it."

The old man's eyes widened. "I…beg your pardon?"

"I know you have something on you which has been affecting the behavior of people who are close enough to you." Ozma explained. "Not even the nomes were immune. So let's see it. That is all I ask before I permit you to remain in our lands."

"But…I-I have _nothing_ on me other than the clothes on my…" He then stopped himself, realizing what Ozma was talking about. "…oh."

Ozma waited quite patiently as the Shaggy Man hesitated, perhaps wondering how wise it would be to reveal it. He then fished through the pockets of his visibly aged suit, some of the dislodged threads of which gave his outfit a shaggy appearance all its own, and then pulled out a palm-sized trinket which was in the shape of a valentine-styled heart. While the two curves of the heart were still there, however, its two ends did not meet at the bottom, giving the trinket the appearance of an odd-looking magnet.

Ozma held out her slender hand, and the Shaggy Man placed the trinket upon her palm. Indeed, she could feel its pleasant emanations. Holding the object, and glancing up at the old man, she now saw him smiling pleasantly at her.

"So this is the Love Magnet." Ozma remarked, studying the item.

"Yes." The Shaggy Man looked upon Ozma with a much more pleasant expression. "Beautiful, isn't it? I can't help but observe how much more lovely you are as you hold it."

But there was a curiosity Ozma wanted to address. "How did you acquire this?"

"I…" He was hesitant to answer this. "…I stole it, your highness."

Ozma raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"It belonged to a young girl in Butterfield. It had apparently been given to her as a birthday gift." The Shaggy Man explained. "Ever since she acquired it, many young men fought among themselves for the right to be her suitor. Many of these boys were friends of hers, and she felt terrible that they needed to be at such unpleasant odds over the mere notion of wanting to be with her."

"And you knew it was because of the magnet?" Ozma asked.

"Well, she was a nice enough girl. She certainly showed me unsolicited kindness." The Shaggy Man responded. "But this urgency by the boys she knew in Butterfield was never an issue until I observed her pondering over the notion that the magnet might be at fault."

"So that's why you took it, right?" Ozma surmised. "Because you wanted her to be happy."

"Astutely put." The vagabond answered. "Before she went into a busy store where she knew most of those boys were, she left the magnet behind her because she wanted to see if they acted any differently towards her. Once she was in the store, I took the magnet."

"Have you ever wondered what might have happened to that girl?" Ozma then asked, rising up from her seat.

"Well…I should hope that she was able to find happiness."

Ozma gestured to the old man. "Follow me, please."

She led the Shaggy Man to her boudoir, where they stopped in front of Ozma's Magic Picture. As she had learned of the girl's name from Glinda, she surprised the old vagabond by voicing the name.

The decrepit-looking man was immediately seized with a sense of dread as he saw the animated picture of the tranquil meadow begin to blur out of sight. He now knew that the next image he would see would be of the girl he had stolen the magnet from.

And while he did indeed see the former owner of the magnet, he saw that the girl was in the loving arms of the one suitor he had hoped the girl would wind up with. A young man who was just as humble and just as selfless as the Shaggy Man was.

A satisfied smile formed on the Shaggy Man's lips when he saw this…but then, a thought occurred to him, and he became a little more wary. "How do I know it is not the Love Magnet influencing this picture?"

Ozma smiled. "Because I left it on the throne room seat downstairs." She held up her empty hands to prove this.

She then stepped over to the amazed vagabond. "I see, hear, and smell you now in a manner that is not being influenced by the Love Magnet, and I still consider you to be a very valuable person, and one who would be right at home here in Oz. Although I must admit, I do feel a bit troubled by the fact that few in your world could ever come to understand your situation."

The Shaggy Man nodded slowly, his head lowered. "They judge me too quickly. I will admit to being a bit more…miserable before I took that magnet." When his head came back up, he had a lamented expression. "Where is the crime in wanting to live a life more simple than most? Why must I be _persecuted_ for how I choose to willingly live my life?"

"That will never happen to you here in Oz, my dear." Ozma gently placed a hand upon the old man's shoulder. "And as no one in Oz can grow old, nor can they die, perhaps in time we will learn that the people outside of the nonestic isles can eventually find sympathy with the plight of those similar to yourself. People who cannot find employment who don't have a penny to their name, but who just want nothing more than a roof over their heads, a bed to sleep in, and the freedom to go wherever they please without engaging in harmful vices."

The Shaggy Man sighed thoughtfully at this. "Our civilization would have to become far less extravagant before such a thing could happen, your highness. This is another reason why I choose to remain here in Oz. If they wish to be happy in their extravagance, that is their choice, and I will not question it. But I no longer wish to be a part of it."

Ozma nodded slowly as the old man spoke. When he was finished, she stepped over to embrace the Shaggy Man. "You may stay in Oz as long as you wish, my friend. I hope you will be much happier here."

She planted a gentle kiss upon the old man's forehead as they smiled to each other. "It seems your brother has also found his own manner of happiness here in Oz. Shall we see how he is doing?"

"I am understandably curious as well, your majesty." The Shaggy Man replied. Sharing his brother's name with the fairy princess, she spoke the name unto the picture and they waited for the expected blur to once again sharpen to crystal clarity.

* * *

Judging by the dominant purple outfits worn by the people around them, the Shaggy Man's brother and the former fairy, Ozga, had chosen to wander through a village in the northern Gillikin Country. They seemed to be engaging in pleasant conversation as they walked together, holding hands as they moved.

The kind Butterfield gentleman couldn't help but notice that Ozga seemed a bit troubled since they had left the Nome Dominions. Once they were a short distance from the village they had been walking through, he stopped her, gently placing his hands on her shoulders after stepping in front of her.

"What is it, Ozga?" He gently asked.

The former fairy initially wanted to deflect the concern, but she knew he'd ask about it again. "I want to go back."

The Shaggy Man's brother thought on this for a moment, initially puzzled. He then frowned, finding it alarming that she would consider this line of thinking. "You mean…back to _Oogaboo?_ After all the trouble we had with the Royal Gardener?"

Ozga shrugged, smiling meekly. "They called me the Rose Princess. I can't just leave them all there. Who knows what that mean ol' man will do to them?"

The Butterfield gentleman nodded, amusedly feigning deep thought. "I suppose we owe it to them to have a real, live fairy confront him about what he did to you. Sounds like it could be a nice little adventure, too."

Ozga beamed happily.

"But…there's just one problem." He added, his expression once again serious. "You may have wings, but…well, I'm gonna have to walk a long…WHOA!"

Before he realized it, he was on his way up to the skies above! But it was not because he himself had sprouted fairy wings. Ozga had pulled him up with her!

His eyes boggled as he saw the ground drop down beneath him, and he felt the winds caress against him a little more strongly as they began taking flight. Ozga had her arms around the waist of the Shaggy Man's brother as they turned to begin their skybound voyage to the land of Oogaboo.

In his excitement, he spread his arms to the sides, emulating the wings of a plane.

And as Ozma and the Shaggy Man watched them fly, they too had satisfied smiles on their faces as their gazes lingered on the Magic Picture's magically-transmitted images.

They could hardly wait to hear about whatever manner of adventure would result from this voyage.

* * *

Once Dorothy Gale was finished with her breakfast, she decided to head out to the farm her Aunt and Uncle established near Munchkinland. Getting there, of course, required her to walk down an all too familiar road of yellow bricks.

She couldn't help but smile in her recollection of those perilous, yet lively adventures, and the manner in which Dorothy met her three lifelong friends, all of whom had become important dignitaries since the Kansas girl's initial departure from Oz. While the Scarecrow was no longer the king the Wizard ordained him to be before his initial departure, he was still a most beloved royal advisor to the princess Ozma. The tin-plated former munchkin called Nick Chopper had been lovingly ordained an Emperor by the winkies who took him in as one of their own, and the Cowardly Lion had since come into his own as a much more brave and formidable king of the beasts in the woodlands of the Quadling Country.

And, of course, the co-founder and leader of his proud Legion of Courage.

Dorothy figured that Toto would be there, at the farm. She suspected that the feisty little black cairn terrier would be guarding the Kansas girl's suite, but he was not there to greet her when she returned following her visit to Glinda's palace.

Walking through that portion of the road which had once been covered with the sleep-inducing poppies the Wicked Witch of the West had permanently infected that area with, she now made the mental leap to the time she spent with the Scarecrow as the patchwork girl Mombi had turned her into. These memories always had a special place in Dorothy's heart since she her humanity had been restored. It now became apparent to the Kansas girl that of all three of her friends, Dorothy felt the closest to the Scarecrow.

Although she also found Ozma quite lovely as well for all the times in which she doted upon the young farmgirl.

She began wondering if there was anyone in her life, before coming to Oz, that might have looked in some way similar to Ozma. Her three friends shared the distinction, after all, of resembling the Kansas farm's three farmhands. Perhaps with Ozma being a fairy, she needed no real-world counterpart.

And whenever Dorothy thought of the fairies, she always got curious as to whomever else in the lands outside of the nonestic isles might have been touched by fairies at birth. Curious as to whether or not she would see anyone else like Betsy or Trot find their way to the land of Oz.

Perhaps the next time, it would be a boy, even.

Dorothy eventually came within sight of the farm, and her pace quickened a little. She thought she might hear Toto's familiar barking, but she heard no such thing.

She figured the dog was taking a nap, or even eating.

She did, however, see a single person who looked vaguely familiar to her tending the fields in front of the farmhouse. The last time she saw this old woman, she was standing with the Shaggy Man within the Nome Dominions.

She also remembered talking with her, briefly, when Dorothy was still covered in dog fur.

The gray-haired woman was in the midst of planting a crop when she finally noticed the Kansas girl staring down at her curiously, and she hefted her pudgy body up off the ground. "Ahh, hello again. Remember me? The woman from the nome caverns?"

Dorothy took a moment to think. The name then came to her. "Mira, right?"

The old woman flourished her hands out to the sides in smiling confirmation. "That's me, dear!" She stepped forward and placed her hands gently on Dorothy's shoulders, softly pecking both of the smiling Kansas girl's cheeks with a kiss, and then looked upon Dorothy's blue eyes. "As you can see, I'm giving your Aunt and Uncle a hand on the farm. See if we can't develop it a little more."

"Didn't you say you lived somewhere else, though?" Dorothy asked. "I figured you had Ozma or Glinda get you back home."

"Well, to be honest, dear…I thought I'd _never_ get away from Noland. Never had any opportunities to do so, and the area where I lived is not very fertile, so I could hardly start a very productive farm there." Mira replied. "I heard so much about how Oz is consistently quite bountiful by comparison. It's actually been a dream of mine to be able to do a little farming out here. I'm honestly grateful to your Aunt and Uncle for letting me help them out. I _love_ working on a farm."

Dorothy figured she'd see munchkin farmhands around the area, but she didn't see anyone. For that matter, she didn't see her Aunt and Uncle, either. "Speaking of my Aunt and Uncle…where are they?"

Mira looked to be deep in thought before she answered. "I believe they went to the palace of the Good Witch of the North. After all…you need to coordinate with the good witches of the land to be able to get the kind of climate that makes crops grow on the farms all throughout Oz, right? Then Locasta or Glinda goes to Ozma, who provides the appropriate weather. That is how it's done, isn't it, Dorothy?"

Dorothy nodded. "How long have they been away?"

"Since this morning." Mira replied. "Oh, and it seems that we've received a few new donations from the munchkins to serve as livestock! A strong, healthy hen, a donkey, and four goats! So we won't find ourselves wanting for eggs or milk, eh?"

Dorothy smiled. "No, I suppose not. What about Toto?"

"As I remember it, he went with your Aunt and Uncle." Mira responded. "Although I must confess that as much as I enjoy working on a farm, they gave me an awful lot of crops to plant, and I've only been able to finish one row. Could you be a dear and give me a hand?"

"Of course, Mira. Here…I'll get started on the second row." Dorothy went over to where the seeds were located, pulling a handful of them. She then slipped off her shoes and walked back over on her bare feet to where Mira was working.

"Oh, good. Very good, my dear." Mira then went back to work just as Dorothy began helping her, beginning a new row and arranging the crops the way her Aunt and Uncle had taught her while she was back in Kansas.

But she noticed that the crops Mira was working on had been arranged a bit crudely. They were too close together. She stopped for a moment to get the old woman's attention. "Uh, Mira…I hope you don't mind my saying so, but the crops are being planted too close together. They need to be separated a little."

Mira looked a little surprised, and she looked at her own work. Seeing Dorothy's work on the second row, she let out a long sigh. "Mmmm, you have a point there, my dear. Oh, fie on my impulsive way of doing things! I _wondered_ why I was using up more seeds than I should have."

Dorothy shrugged. "It's not such a big deal. If you like, I can fix this row for you. You can finish the row I started. Just follow the pattern."

"Would you? Oh, you're such a selfless young thing. That would be wonderful." Mira stepped aside to watch Dorothy begin work on fixing the errors the old woman had made. Mira herself examined the Kansas girl's pattern, and tried to emulate it as best she could with another handful of seeds.

They worked for quite a few hours under the warm sun high above, although there were a couple of occasions where Dorothy once again needed to correct Mira's patterns, making what was a selfless favor become a bit of a tough slog for the Kansas girl.

Once the field was done, Dorothy looked very tired, and she wiped a bit of sweat from her brow. Her legs felt a little cramped, as well, from having bent down at her knees for long periods. Still, the work was done, and Dorothy gave the fields another review before proclaiming the work satisfactory.

"Oh, I just know your Aunt and Uncle will be sooo happy to see this!" Mira gushed. "We should take a well-deserved break, you and I. Fortunately, I have just the thing for us both right inside." The old woman gestured to the farmhouse door. "Shall we?"

Dorothy nodded, still quite tired. "Uh-huh."

Mira led the exhausted farmgirl into the kitchen area, where Dorothy saw a large pitcher of milk, and a single empty glass. "I had thought I'd be doing all that work alone." Mira remarked as she poured the milk into the large glass. "I never expected that someone as helpful as you would come along. I'll go get a smaller glass. You deserve the big one."

"Don't put yourself down. You did fine." Dorothy noted as she began drinking the milk. "Just a few little corrections is all. Wow…is this goat milk?"

Mira shook her head, smiling as her eyes remained on the Kansas girl. "This milk came from one of the open markets in Munchkinland. I got three whole half gallons. The rest is in your refrigerator. I believe that's dairy milk, dear. Go on, drink up."

Dorothy complied, finding the taste of the milk quite good. "Whoever you got this from, I should find out where they get their cows."

Mira nodded, still smiling. "Perhaps we can go into Munchkinland later and find out. I must admit, I would have preferred getting a Holstein cow rather than those goats, but…you make do with what you have, yes?"

Her next drink from the half-full glass brought the rest of the milk down her throat in a slow, gradual tilt. She sighed out loudly in satisfaction. "Wow. That was _good._ "

Mira poured herself a glass, filling the slightly smaller one she had taken from the cupboard, and began drinking it. "Mmm! Yes, indeed. This is fresh. Perfect. Although as I understand it, dairy milk is a bit fattening if you drink enough of it. Did you want a refill, dear?"

Dorothy smiled. "You read my mind. I wouldn't mind another glass at all."

"Then we can figure out what we can do next to get this farm into shape before your Aunt and Uncle come back home. They may be away longer than you might think, you know." Mira observed, drinking down more from her glass as she stood behind Dorothy. She then refilled the thirsty Kansas girl's own glass with the untainted, unenchanted milk, filling it close to the rim of the glass this time.

By the time she was finished with this glass, she felt quite full in her gut. This was visibly obvious as she glanced down at her now round belly. Dorothy even felt a little larger as she began to rise up from her chair.

But she felt Mira's hands gently settle upon her shoulders. "No, no. You still look a little tired, dear. Stay in that seat for a while. We're not in any terrible rush, after all."

Dorothy slowly nodded, a gentle smile on her face as she settled back down. "Mmm."

The farmgirl's apparent lethargy seemed to increase as she remained in her chair. Yet she continued to smile as she stared forward with half-lidded eyes, recalling memories of helping her Aunt and Uncle on their old farm back in Kansas.

Mira gently brought her slightly-drooped head back up, smiling upon her with eyes that had a faint red glow deep within them. "Thaaat's it, just relax. Mira will take care of you now…and later tonight, we'll get some more milk to go with the half gallons I got from the market. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Dorothy slowly nodded, her dull brown eyes lazily staring back at Mira.

* * *

Somewhere in the far northern region of the Gillikin Country, a young boy wandered.

His paths were aimless, and he seemed to do a lot of sniffing as he moved.

He had to distance himself from where he had come from, after what had happened. He just felt incredibly disoriented. He ignored anyone noticing him.

Looking upon this boy, they noted his curly, jet black hair, and he seemed to stand out in his rather plain-looking, all-black outfit. They all wondered where he came from. He did not regard anyone's attempts to communicate with him.

The gillikins began to wonder if this admittedly nice-looking young boy was going to become a problem.

He chose to settle near the border separating the gillikin lands from the deadly desert, sitting down on the ground against a tree. He still found himself sniffing around as he sat as well. Such was his habit, after all.

He remained there for a fairly long moment before he saw a speck in the skies become larger as it closed in. The speck took a shape, and now it resembled a small person holding on to a larger black object.

The black-haired boy rose slowly from where he sat, and followed where this individual was about to land. Fortunately, whatever he was holding would not put him in the desert, and he ran a little faster once this young boy made a harmless and soft touchdown.

Collapsing the object he held until it was a narrow stick, the boy in black slowed his steps as he got close to this young boy, who had a head of short, blond, curly hair. He wore a sailor's shirt and a pair of loose-fitting blue slacks.

The blond boy looked around with a mixture of curiosity and amazement…until his eyes fell upon the boy in black who was curiously gazing at him.

"Oh…" The blond boy began, bringing a hand up to wave in greeting. "…hi."

The boy in black returned the wave. "Hi."

After another long moment, the boy in black spoke once again. "Did you…come from the lands on the other side of the desert?"

The blond boy shrugged. "Don't know."

The boy in black gestured to the object the stranger held in his young hands. "Where did that come from?"

The visitor shrugged. "Don't know. Found it."

The black-clad boy nodded slowly. "Well…um, welcome to Oz. What's your name?" He held out a hand.

Hesitantly, the boy took the hand and shook it. "Button-Bright."

The boy in black frowned upon hearing this. "Wow…that's an unusual name."

Button-Bright shrugged. "Papa said I was bright as a button. So…what's your name?"

The boy in black smiled. "Oh…I'm Toto. Nice to meet you."

* * *

 **Aaaaaaand that's where we're gonna leave it for now, dear reader! The tale is told!**

 **It may be a bit of time before I come back and finish it all off with one last story to complete the series, seeing as how I need to plot this last one out a little before I start writing it!**

 **I may divert to other stories in the meantime…but rest assured, I won't leave you hanging for too long!**

 **Please feel free to leave comments while you wait for the last chapter!**

 **For now, farewell!**

 **\- The Wandering Talespinner**


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